Face the Facts, Not the Fiction
by UlquiorrArekushia4
Summary: Sometimes life was like a guessing game. A guessing game where no one gave any hints, and when you did guess they never told you if you were right or wrong. All in all, a horrible game; but my question was how I'd been able to cope with it for so long. That…and why I wished I hadn't started guessing. OC/Ulqui, OC/Grimm (Not really a triangle) For Unbr0ken
1. Just say it

Disclaimer: it's pretty damn obvious that I don't own Bleach.

~A Fic dedicated to KillingDesire~

Me: Ok, this is my first Fic, I'm not going to put up a schedule for how often I'll update, but I am definitely not going to abandon this story. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Alexia: It didn't look like you enjoyed it too much, staying up until 5 am with bloodshot eyes to finish it off T_T

Ulquiorra: She is giving this story her all, let's appreciate it.

Me: ^_^ Thanks, Ulqui. Now, on with the story!

~(•-•~) (~•-•)~ ~(•-•)~ ~(•-•~) (~•-•)~ ~(•-•)~ ~(•-•~) (~•-•)~ ~(•-•)~

I'm sure that you've probably thought, "It would be the best thing in the world if I were to live in the world of Bleach!" If you have thought of this, I'd like to tell you something.

The world of Bleach is not. Fucking. Cool.

At all.

First of all, you've gotten yourself into some deep shit by being able to see spirits, then getting mixed up in some more shit with Soul Society and to top it all off, you get deep-fried in some shit with hollows and arrancars and espadas and all that jazz. Add some sprinkles of shit for the fact that there's a possibility that you could die every fucking day you wake up and your ice cream doesn't taste so good anymore.

But since when the hell are we talking about ice cream?

Seeing as how I still don't know how to get back to my normal life, if you can call it normal, I was only supplied with a notebook and 24-pack of #2 pencils given to me by Szayelapporo Granz (Rare name, but who am I to say that?) in order to observe me without physically touching me, as ordered by that bastard, Aizen Sôsuke. I have to write my thoughts and what I think of this place and events that go on around here. I'm surprised that I haven't killed myself with my eating utensils whenever they deliver the food they give me, I don't even know what the hell that food even is.

Well, maybe if it wasn't for a certain raven-haired hollow that was basically my warden, I would have. Him...Ulquiorra Schiffer. Tch, I sound like such a girl. Not that I'm not, but I don't like getting all excited whenever he checks up to see if I'm alive.

I guess it was just the way that he acts, who he is. His jet black hair that holds no shine, huge emerald green eyes (my favorite color) that didn't show any emotion at all. His pale face with teal streaks going from his eyes to his jaw. The long flaps of his clothing billowing behind him, hands in his pockets. The way he doesn't care about anything, and if he does he certainly doesn't show it. He was so–

Ahem. Seems I'm getting a little carried away. Remind me to destroy this bit of info later.

I guess I'm slowly starting to get used to all this crazy shit. And it's a hell of a lot better than what life used to be about before all this happened. You might be thinking, "Your parents must be looking everywhere for you!" Ha. Ha.

My parents are dead. Don't you dare feel sorry for me.

Well, as uneventful as this life is, I've found out many surprising things about Aizen, Gin, Tôsen and all the espadas that I couldn't have possibly imagined in the manga or anime. I don't regret what happens to me. After all, I get to experience what so many others don't. I at least try to make it enjoyable.

But with me, it's a regular rule that I have to get what I don't want. Isn't that just dandy?

Just bear with me, alright? I guess I'll be stuck here for a while, seeing as how that Orihime bi– girl still hasn't been captured, so this is before all that happened. I don't know why Aizen didn't want to kill me in the first place. I knew everyone's ranks, resurrecciones and names, not to mention their order of deaths. I guess he thought I'd be able to tell what the future held for him, he was the only one I hadn't mentioned in my declaration of who was going to die and when. Aaroniero was quite angry with me.

"Woman."

"Hm? Oh…it's you." I spaced out for a second, just staring at Ulquiorra Schiffer's perfect form, nothing out of place.

"Aizen has told me to bring you into the meeting hall. He wishes to speak with you."

"Oh. Him," I remark with a bitter attitude. I really hated that guy. Then I remembered a video I'd seen before I'd gotten mixed up in all this and couldn't help but start laughing. Ulquiorra just stared at me like he does everything. With no emotion.

"What exactly do you find amusing about that?" He asked.

"Um…I know this is crazy, but do you guys have computers here?" The first thing that came to mind when I said that was the original lyrics to 'Call me maybe'. Stupid photographic memory. As if he'd ever give me his number, if he had one. As for my question, I'd seen enough things around here that shouldn't even exist in this world; a bar was in one of Las Noches's huge dining halls, and a miniature mall was somewhere else, too. Add the fact that this place looked like a black and white hotel with all this extra stuff they had (they even have hot springs, how the hell do you have hot springs in Hueco Mundo?) and you can imagine why I'm not necessarily mad or sad about being here. So you'd figure that they had at least one goddamn piece of technology somewhere, too.

"What do you speak of?" He wasn't serious. They had to have a computer somewhere…right?

"Um…a computer. A thing that lets you go onto the Internet? Microsoft, Bill Gates, CPU, nothing seems familiar?"

"No."

"That sucks." I pouted a little. I loved computers, especially the iPad I got from an aunt of mine a few weeks before I was somehow transported here. Remembering the world I used to be in, I blanked out a little and didn't hear what else Ulquiorra said. "Huh?" God, I sounded like an idiot.

"I don't like repeating myself, woman."

Just great; onto plan B then. I looked down and hesitated before slowly putting my head up again. I really hated doing this, but if it was for Ulquio—that is to say, I needed to know what he'd said. That's the only reason why I would ever do this. Really.

I positioned my legs on the couch I was sitting on so that they made a W shape and out both hands atop of each other out in front, between my legs almost as if I was about to bow to him. Then I arched my back a bit and looked at him with pleading eyes, my bottom lip puckering out a little. "Please?" I asked almost in an innocent manner. Almost.

It was only for a fraction of a second, but I saw his eyes widen a bit. Then he turned away. "I was only saying that you should explain why you'd need such things, and if you could explain what exactly a Microsoft, Bill Gates and CPU are," he said quickly. He only turned his head to look back me but I definitely saw that there was a small trace of a blush on his cheeks.

I was wearing the same clothes I had ever since I got kidnapped and taken here, black skinny jeans with a long white shirt that had layers of ruffles, accompanied by a black hoodie and black converse. I wasn't into pastel colors; I liked the black and white spectrum, with the occasional dark green, dark purple or blue. My clothing wasn't anything tempting, but…well, I didn't like to brag, but my aunt had always said that I was the only person in the family who had curves and all the right proportions that the rest of the family wanted. I prefer not to dote on stupid things like curves and breasts and asses, they were troublesome if you asked me. But occasionally they came in handy when it came to persuading.

I flashed a smile. "Sure thing," I replied and went into a regular sitting position. I stayed like that for a little while, then I realized that he was still waiting for me. I'd completely forgotten about the tea-drinking bastard I had to have a talk with. Not that I have anything against tea, I actually love it. I especially adored chamomile.

But that's another story.

I stood up from the couch and started walking ahead of Ulquiorra. "Lead the way, Ulqui-cielago."

"Don't call me that." I smiled again. I remembered when I was trying to come up with a nickname for him, I had actually suggested several names and asked if they were alright, but he declined each and every one of them.

**_ "Hey, Ulquiorra."_**

**_ "What do you want?"_**

**_ "Do you have a nickname?"_**

**_ "What is a nickname?"_**

**_ "It's another name for a person you know. When I was in my world, some people called me Lexi instead of Alexia. That's a nickname."_**

**_ "In that case, no, I do not have a nickname."_**

**_ "Would you like one?"_**

**_ "…"_**

**_ "How about Ulqui?"_**

**_ "No."_**

**_ "Ulqui-chan?"_**

**_ "There is very little difference between–"_**

**_ "Ulqui-bat?"_**

**_ "Of course not."_**

**_ "Murcielago?"_**

**_ "That's longer than my real name."_**

**_ "Guess you do have a point there…"_**

**_ "What is the point of having a nickname?"_**

**_ "…Well, to tell you the truth, there's absolutely no reason."_**

**_ "Then why should I have one?"_**

**_ I shrugged. "Just cause."_**

**_ "I'm finding this conversation to be quite pointless."_**

**_ I snapped my fingers. "I just found the perfect nickname!" I exclaimed and grinned. "Ulqui-cielago!"_**

**_ "…"_**

**_ "What's that look for?"_**

**_ "First of all, that name is longer than my real name and it also contains 'Ulqui'. Second, that particular name seems to be more annoying than the rest."_**

**_ "Good, then I'm calling you that from now on."_**

**_ "Why?"_**

**_ "Because you're cute when you're annoyed."_**

I had blushed insanely after I said that, I wasn't thinking when that thought came into my head. Thankfully he had brushed it off with a small moment of awkwardness followed by a muttered, "Trash." I was extremely happy he hadn't ceroed me into ashes.

"Woman."

"Hm?"

"Watch where you are going."

"And why should I—gah! Ow…" I'd slammed into one of the walls in the hallway, what I get for spacing out. Again. Then I turned the corner and bumped into something, no, someone else. Somebody I really didn't want to see. That spoonhead. Yeah, you know who I'm talking about.

Nnoitora Gilga.

"Yo, bitch. How's it going? Are you free tonight?" I swear, I would kill this guy if I could.

"The day that you will find me free for anything will be when you bow in submission to me in front of Aizen and the espadas, so I don't think there's any hope of you ever having a chance with me, Spoon." I smirked as I saw his grin falter and he grabbed a fistful of my waist-length hair, definitely wiping that smirk off as I yelped, only to be pushed away by…Ulquiorra?

"I'm afraid that you cannot do damage to her, as instructed by Lord Aizen. Until he says otherwise, you and the other espadas will not harm her. Is that easy enough for your brain to comprehend?"

"Why, you," Nnoitora snarled. I could see a vein about to pop and I immediately knew that we had to get out of there.

"Ok, ok, this is getting a bit too out of hand, don't you think?" I sweat dropped when they both turned to face me, both of their expressions telling me that they didn't necessarily appreciate me getting me mixed up in this. "And, um, you know…Aizen's waiting for us! And we wouldn't want him to get mad for being late, you know? So…Ulquiorra…let's go!" I saved him the humiliation of calling him by his nickname as I walked behind him and put both of my hands on his shoulders, trying to push him along.

"Do not touch me."

Geez. "Just start moving or else I'll call you _that_ again," I mumbled loud enough so that he'd be the only one to hear me. He turned his head to stare at me. "In front of _him_." I flicked my eyes over to Nnoitora so that Ulquiorra could know exactly who I was talking about.

Reluctantly, he started to move in the opposite direction of where Nnoitora was coming from. "Woah, does that whore have you on a leash, Ulquiorra? If I didn't know better, I'd say that she's the more powerful one," Nnoitora remarked. Ulquiorra snapped his head around so fast I thought it might just have spun off. I could feel the dark aura that was radiating from his form. I could also practically feel the ice daggers Ulquiorra was shooting at Nnoitora. "Ah ha…J-just kidding! I gotta go, see you guys later!" Nnoitora sonidoed off as if the devil himself was chasing after him. I wouldn't doubt it.

"This way," Ulquiorra said. I turned around to face him and saw that he was already turning another corner. If I didn't hurry I'd probably get lost in here.

"Wait up!" I called and ran after him. "I don't know Las Noches like you do, so you shouldn't leave me behind, Ulquiorra." He didn't respond and continued to walk in front of me. "Hey, say something."

"Trash."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"…I never would have thought that you had a sense of humor," I remarked. It was true, him being serious all the time you would think that he'd never crack his own joke once in a while, even if it was in the form of sarcasm.

"It is not humor, it is pure disinterest."

Huh. Guess there really was no chance that he'd be funny.

"Hurry, Lord Aizen is waiting for you inside." We stopped outside of huge double doors, Ulquiorra putting a hand on one of the handle bars, waiting for me so he could open the door. "I will also come inside to hear if Lord Aizen wants me to do something for him. Should that happen you are to wait and not interrupt while he is talking to me."

"You've already told me this twice, you know." He said the exact same thing the other two times, nothing about the way he said the words were different, which gave me a sense of déjà vu.

"I am merely repeating myself so that you do not forget."

"Even though I'm a human, it doesn't mean that I have horrible memory."

"I doubt it."

"I don't."

He was going to say something else but seemed to remember that we were here to talk to Aizen and instead opened the doors to the room.

Looks like I won. Hooray...yeah, right. Ulquiorra was just way too obedient and, frankly, probably thought that our discussion was pointless. I guess it was, in a way. I followed him inside and was immediately greeted by the devil himself.

Scratch that, he can't even reach the rank of a devil.

That's right. Aizen Sôsuke.

"Hello, Alexia. Glad you have decided to have a chat with us."

Us? Then I realized that Aizen wasn't the only person there. The rest of the espadas were hidden in the shadows of the room, as well as Gin and Tôsen. The only ones who made their presence known was Grimmjow and, of course, Nnoitora. Just fucking great.

"Alexia," Aizen continued, "do you know why I have called you here?"

"Not a clue." I was going to be extremely blunt and, just maybe, sarcastic. I wanted to make a fool of him in front of his dear soldiers.

"We have gathered here today—"

"This isn't a wedding, Sôsuke, get it over with."

"To discuss the subject of what exactly we should do about our situation with you," he continued regardless of what I'd said. I'd made the fifth and sixth espadas snicker, but it still didn't seem to faze him. "Some of the espadas have voiced their opinions on you, would you like to know what they think of you?"

"Only if they say it, I don't want you talking for them since they're perfectly capable of speaking for themselves." For all I knew he'd just say a load of bullshit and nobody would have the guts to disagree. Well, except for Grimmjow, but unless he wanted his arm chopped off before its time (I'd told him about Tôsen cutting off his arm in the near future, which caused us to go into a huge argument that made us the frenemies we were at the moment) he'd probably keep his mouth shut.

"Well, I have recorded what they said on this." He held up a small video cassette. "I thought they would be more truthful if you were not physically in the room." He saw the face I was making, one of pure disbelief, and said, "Is there something wrong?"

"Wow, you still use these?" I pointed to the tape in his hand. "Don't you have a camcorder or something?"

"A…camcorder? What are you talking about, I have heard of no such thing." I could tell he was trying to avoid the subject, a smile on his face, but I knew I was onto something here.

"So, even Aizen the Terrible doesn't have the brains for modern technology," I snickered. "No wonder I haven't seen any televisions."

"Ahem," Aizen diverted the espadas' attention. "Are you backing out of your decision now?"

"I never told you to not play the tape, dumbass," I replied. I heard a small gasp and smiled. "So, do you even know how to put that thing inside a cassette player?"

He didn't answer and quickly walked over to another table a few feet away and popped the tape into a player. "Hear for yourself," he mumbled. Alexia-1, Aizen-0, I thought to myself.

I heard a bit of static before the voice of the first espada, Stark, cut through. It was pretty unusual to hear his voice, considering he would spend almost all hours of the day sleeping. Everyone was silent as the tape played.

"I don't really have a problem with her. I mean…well, I don't really talk with her much, but she doesn't seem like a bad person. She could easily be killed in this kind of enviornment, but if she's scared she sure doesn't show it." I heard a long yawn after he was done. "Geez, talking is tiring…can I go to sleep now?" I let out a small laugh at that and Stark came out of the shadows to take a seat at the long table in the middle of the room. "Hey," he said nonchalantly.

"How's life?" I asked.

"Tiring."

I smiled. "Take a nap."

He waved his hand dismissively. "Will do." His head hit the table and a soft snoring could be heard as we all watched in awe. Stark really was an expert on sleeping.

"…" The tape went silent for a moment, then the static came back for a moment; then the voice of Barragan could be heard and I felt a chill go up my spine. The old guy gave me the creeps.

"She shouldn't be here," the tape played and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Does it look like I asked to be here? "If it were me, I'd be more respectful to the espadas and not stick myself into situations that don't concern me. I'll give one warning: leave before you die." Barragan slowly made his way to the table and have me a cold stare. I stared back. When he diverted his eyes to Aizen I took the opportunity and said, "It wasn't like I was begging to come here, you know. Don't take your sore attitude out on people who don't want anything to do with you. No wonder nobody objected to you being dethroned." I saw fire in his eyes but he stayed put in regard of Aizen's orders. I kept a straight face throughout what I was saying. I didn't want to appear to be overconfident and smug. "I'm guessing Harribel is next?" I asked.

"Correct," Aizen responded with a smile. Once again the room was silent except for the static of the cassette.

"It's oddly comforting," I heard Harribel's voice say. I was honestly surprised. What was there to be comforted about? "Knowing that my fracćion and I aren't the only women here. She seems strong, and I hope that she pulls through despite the type of environment she's in. She's innocent and I would like for her to experience what the world will turn into once we have defeated the soul reapers. Alexia, please watch as we construct a new world." I didn't expect Harribel to say most of that. I had felt like snorting when she'd said I was innocent but I saw that she had meant that I didn't know what it was like to live as a race of beings who's motives are to kill in order to survive. Her expression was, as far as I could see, calm. What with her clothes covering half of her face it was hard to tell.

"I'm…ah, well, I wasn't expecting you to say any of that," I said.

"I just said whatever seemed fit. It was my honest opinion," she responded. "I don't necessarily have anything against you."

"I'm glad you don't, it's one more person I don't have to be on a watch-out for so that they don't kill me."

"I suppose you're right," she said. The conversation ended there. Well, she didn't seem like the type to talk, anyway.

I realized that the fourth espada would be the next to talk. The fourth…

_The_ fourth, Ulquiorra Schiffer.

Crap.

But when the next voice came up, it wasn't him. Instead I heard Nnoitora's voice, his voice teasing and mischievous. I felt disappoi—um, relieved.

"I'd love to have her around. She's fun to tease, and not to mention sexy as hell." I didn't waste a moment to facepalm myself. "Hey, if we keep her, can I play with her a bit? I'm sure that behind that dull voice of hers she's very…vocal." My eye twitched. The bastard didn't know what was coming for him when this was all over, he'd regret saying that.

"What do you say?" Nnoitora's voice whispered into my ear. I almost whipped my hand up to cover my ear but I knew better than to give him the satisfaction of knowing he'd startled me. I took a deep breath and turned around to face him.

"There is no way that I'll ever have any interest in you or your motives, if you're so desperate to lose your virginity why don't you just go fuck Tesla?" I saw his face turn red not only from embarrassment but from anger as well. "Or is it the other way around, does Tesla fuck you?" I started laughing when he turned even redder, if it was possible. I'm happy to say that he ran to his seat, the other espadas staring at him. I tried to stop laughing as Grimmjow's voice was heard.

"She's incredibly weak, I don't get why Aizen wants to keep her around. I haven't seen her lift a finger against us, when we try to get her into a fight she turns us down and smart-mouths us, she's like the female version of Ulquiorra! She's not doing anything around here, just being a bitch and not giving a shit. I hate her." Ouch. I definitely didn't know he was going to sign off like that. Though, I considered that comment about me being a lot like Ulquiorra a compliment...um, I mean that I'd rather be like Ulquiorra than Grimmjow or Nnoitora. Yeah, that's it. I glared at Grimmjow as he sat down.

"I hate you too," I said.

"Whatever," he replied.

"Fine."

"Yeah."

"Don't think that this'll change anything."

"Fine by me."

"Do you think I'm a fool?"

"Yes."

"Guess what?"

"What?"

"I think I prefer Luppi over you."

"..." His expression was one of pure shock. Sure, it was a lie, but I had to win this little argument we had, whatever the cost. At the moment Luppi was the 106th espada, and I was the only one who knew that Grimmjow would be replaced by him; it seemed that all of Las Noches regarded Luppi as an extremely feminine asshole who didn't have a likable personality in the least.

"Zommari's next?" I asked.

"He said he had nothing to say on the matter, so we let him be and didn't force him to say anything," Aizen replied. "So, instead we have Szayelapporo Granz speaking."

"I would be thrilled to use her for my experiments," Szayel's voice chattered excitedly. He got into scientific explanations so detailed and intricate even I couldn't really understand what he was saying. I almost drifted off into my own little world but came back to my senses at the last second. "So, in conclusion, I would like her to stay in exchange for her participation in my experiments. That is all." It seemed that the only espadas who weren't sleeping were Ulquiorra, Harribel, Barragan and Szayelapporo, of course. He got up and handed me a few papers. I scanned them and saw that it was an application of sorts, except it was asking for "conditions of internal organs", "immunity strength", and one other I wasn't going to answer even if it was on a piece of paper. "Virginity Status." No way in hell. Not that I wasn't a virgin, but that was way too intimate a question…and I wasn't about to hand myself over so I could be tested on for breeding purposes. The mere thought made me feel a chill up my spine.

"I'll never do such a thing." I resisted the urge to shove the papers down his throat and calmly handed them to him.

"Are you sure about that?"

"More than my own life," I murmured, wanting to just listen to the rest of the tape. "Aaroniero?"

As if on cue, Aaroniero's voice could be heard. "She is..." the first half of Aaroniero started, the voice a bit high-pitched, "interesting." The lower-pitched half of Aaroniero finished the rest of the sentence. The rest of what he said was in the same manner; a high-pitched start with a low-pitched finish. "If I was to transform into a family member or friend of hers...I have the feeling she wouldn't care even if it was the real people. She looks out for herself and only herself...unless it is necessary to help someone else." Great, he just made me sound like a selfish bitch. I looked around, trying to find him, and saw that he was already seated at the table.

"You don't really get it," I told him. "I'm not exactly the easiest person to understand so I know that you might think that I'm selfish or conceited, but you've got it all wrong. And—" I raised the index finger of my left hand up, "I'm not just going to spill the whole story out either, so you're going to have to cope with me as I am." Since I couldn't see his facial expression(he had two faces, which one was the one that held his expression?) it was hard to tell what he might've been feeling or thinking, but from his silence I could only assume that he was in deep thought.

"Very well...Alexia," he said after a few seconds. That was the end of that.

The next voice on the recording was so loud and booming I almost jumped in surprise. "She's weak!" Yammy remarked. "And stupid! I would've killed her the moment I saw her!" I didn't resist scoffing at what he'd said. Seems like he truly didn't give a shit. He had an interesting way to sign off, too. "I'm fuckin' hungry."

"Not my fault you're hungry," I remarked as Yammy practically collapsed into his chair with a loud growl from his stomach.

"Tch. Yeah it is, he could've been stuffing his face, as always, instead of talking about a bitch who doesn't know when she's crossing the line," Grimmjow butted in.

"I believe you already got your turn, Kit-kat," I called him by the annoying nickname I had given him. No offense...actually, I think Kit Kats are delicious. Suddenly I was a bit hungry, too. Damn.

"There's no taking turns where you're concerned," he replied.

"Got that right."

"So, stands to reason—"

"Okay," I interrupted. "One, you don't have any reasoning skills, and two, you've already got burned once, you sure you want it to happen again?" Technically I had just burned him just for saying that so it didn't really matter anymore. He stuttered and averted his gaze from me, his cheeks tinted with a slight…blush? The fuck? I decided to ignore that for now. "Nothing to say, Yammy?"

"Don't wanna waste words on you," he murmured. " 'Sides, Grimmjow made me forget what I was going to say."

"Well," Aizen started, "since the espadas have had their say, now we—"Aizen waved his hand toward Gin, Tôsen and himself, "shall contribute to the rest of the opinions."

"Oh!" Gin waved his hand like a child at school. "Can I go first?" Almost everyone looked at him in disbelief.

"Um...Why not? Go ahead, Gin," Aizen replied after what seemed like an eternity of silence.

Gin practically skipped over to my side and put his left arm around my shoulders. "I wanna keep 'er! She's funny, an' I think it would be better if we kept 'er for entertainment. I absolutely love 'er way of communicatin', never afraid ta speak da truth!" Oh god, his way of speaking reminded me of a hillbilly or wannabe gangster. "What do ya say?"

"Um...sure thing...I guess," I answered. I was getting tired of hearing what people had to say about me.

"Alexia," Tôsen stood up from his seat and walked over to me. How, I have no idea. "You have potential in our army, the question is if you're willing to do your part. If you—"

"Sorry to interrupt, but I don't think I have any other choice." I was secretly happy that they'd wanted me to join their army. But I was wondering if that meant they'd have to turn me into an arrancar...if I did, I'd want to be Ulquiorra's fracc—ah, I'd want to become stronger than Ulquiorra. That's what I meant.

"Well then," Tôsen turned to face Aizen(how the hell did he—oh yeah, spiritual pressure), "I think we do not need to discuss matters further."

"I suppose so," Aizen replied. "I do not necessarily have anything to say about her, either. I just have a warning: be very. Very. Cautious. We wouldn't want anything to happen to you, now would we?" I immediately took that as a threat. "Do you have any...questions?" I saw his eyes flicker over to Ulquiorra, who was standing with his ever-so-emotional blank face. I knew he wanted me to ask why Ulquiorra hadn't said anything and I wanted to know as well, but I just couldn't ask. Not if Aizen was expecting me to.

"No," I said. "I think I'll be going now, excuse me." I walked over to the double doors and turned around to face Ulquiorra, mentally sending him a message: "Are you coming or not?" I would probably get lost if he didn't come with me, anyways.

Ulquiorra turned to Aizen, seeking his permission to leave. All it took was a small nod for Ulquiorra to understand; he opened the door and I basically ran out the door with him following me (walking; did you think he'd run out with me?). After turning a few corners I asked him what Aizen had wanted me to ask before, feeling somewhat defiant that I was asking it of my own accord.

"Hey, Ulqui-cielago?"

"If you are going to expect some sort of answer from me I expect you to call me by my actual name," he said. Was he some sort of mind reader?

"Um...ok." I sighed before repeating my question with his real name. I really hated repeating myself. "Hey, Ulquiorra?" His name rolled off of my tongue easily. I wanted to say it over and over again, and I wanted him to call me by my name as well so I could hear my name spoken in that low voice of his—ahem. Back to present time...

"What is it, woman?"

"Why didn't you say anything about me in the recordings?"

"…" He hesitated a few moments before answering, "Like Zommari, I found no apparent reason to have to give my opinion on you. Also, as you might not have noticed, I do not like giving away what I am thinking, especially in front of a large group."

"Then why don't you tell me now?" I asked. "There's no large group that's going to hear what you're saying." I was dying on the inside to know. I didn't give a shit about what Zommari had to say, I needed to hear something from Ulquiorra.

"Why should I tell you?"

"Why shouldn't you?"

"Because I don't think it is necessary to—"

"I think it's necessary." My voice went up a notch. Why couldn't he just tell me and be over with it?

"You're wasting my time, woman." We'd arrived at my "room" and he was holding the door open for me to enter so he could leave.

"Maybe I'd waste less of your time if you'd answer my question."

In the blink of an eye, Ulquiorra grabbed my arm and shoved me into my room. In shock, I fell to the floor and stayed there for a second. Then I realized just what happened and I snapped.

How dare he!

Before he could slam the door on me, I stuck my left foot out and prevented the door from closing completely. Shit, that hurt. With the pain from my foot and from falling, tears were threatening to fall from my eyes. I didn't cry for a lot of things but it's not like I could endure a lot of pain, especially from my feet.

"What are you doing?" he asked. He opened the doors bit so I could take my foot back. Or so he thought. Instead I wedged myself in even more, up to my knee, before grabbing the doorknob and hoisting myself up. I wanted to punch his face so bad right now, but I knew that if I tried I'd end up with a broken hand. Stupid hierro.

"What's so wrong with telling one single person what's going on in your head!?" I kept my head down, my long black locks of hair coming in front of my face and blocking Ulquiorra from seeing my expression. My hands were fisted at my sides; when I removed my foot from the door I was expecting him to shut it again, but surprisingly, he didn't. "If you would just tell me then none of this would happen!"

"I..." Ulquiorra started. I almost thought he might tell me. Finally.

"You what?" I needed him to keep going.

What he said was the last thing I'd ever thought I'd hear him tell me.

"I don't want to hurt you. Stay away from me."

Silence.

He left me there and started to walk away, but I quickly recovered from what he'd told me and went after him. _What the hell?_ I thought. I blocked his path, putting both hands on either side of the walls; in the corridor where I was being kept the halls were more narrow, for what reason, I had no idea. Then I realized he could just sonido past me. Nice fucking move, Alexia. But instead of doing just that, he walked up to me and then stopped. His hands in his pockets, stoic expression, he stared. And stared. Time seemed to stop.

"W-what..." I started, "did you mean?"

His expression held the smallest ounce of hesitation. Then he answered. "It means exactly what it sounds like. I don't..."

"Well, you've already hurt me, if squishing my foot doesn't hurt at least a little bit I don't know what does." I saw him starting to walk backwards but I instinctively grabbed the front of his uniform. "Just fucking tell me, Schiffer."

"I cannot explain. I must leave now. Let me—"

"No!" I practically yelled and pulled him a bit closer. "You're not going anywhere until you explain, and I don't care how fucking long it takes!"

"Alexia…" My heart stopped for a second. He...said it. Wait, it could've been my imagination.

"S-sorry, did you say something?"

"Woman." Oh. Definitely my imagination. "I said, 'Alexia'."

Crap, crap, _crap!_ I could already feel my cheeks beginning to get a bit warmer.

"Do you have a fever, woman?" Ulquiorra put the back of his left hand on my forehead. It was…warm. Or that could be the ever-so-evident blush. I backed away, slapping my own hand to my forehead.

"I-i'm alright! Just, um..."

"Your cheeks have turned a vibrant shade of red; are you sure you're alright?" Again, he walked up to me and this time, he put the index finger of his right hand on the skin just under my left eye, as if seeing if it was some sort of paint. I wanted him to do so much more—holy shit.

"D-don't worry about m-me! I'm fi—" Somehow, one of Ulquiorra's—coattails?— got in front of him and I stepped on one while continuing to back away. In less than a second, I slipped and fell. His clothing got wrapped around my ankle and he fell as well.

On top of me.

Thank god he put his hands out in front of him. Our mouths were less than two inches away.

For what seemed like an eternity, we stared into each others' eyes. His expression seemed no different, but his eyes were opened slightly wider. His long black locks of hair fell in front of his face as if reaching out to me.

I, on the other hand, was in yet another state of shock. I could still feel the blush on my face; my hair was billowed out on the floor and I was trying to steady my breathing, my lips slightly parted. The close proximity was making me overly anxious, I wouldn't be able to stand it for much longer.

My eyes widened even more, if it was possible, as I saw Ulquiorra's face coming nearer to mine, his lips also parting. Time slowed down even more. We were 1 1/2 inches away from each other, 1 inch, 1/2…

"The hell are you two doing?" The voice of the sixth espada snapped us both out of our stupor. I quickly pushed Ulquiorra away and sat up, my hair disheveled and (goddammit) the blush still there. I was envious of how Ulquiorra looked, not at all fazed, no trace of a blush, his hair exactly the same.

"N-none of your damn business, Grimm—"

"It was an accident, Sexta," Ulquiorra interrupted. "Your mind is too corrupted to process the reality." He stood up and brushed his hands on his uniform.

"Tch, not like I care. I'm just surprised someone as conceited as you could care for her." Grimmjow muttered. He put an emphasis on "her".

"I do not care for her," Ulquiorra said. I whipped my head around to stare at him. I hadn't imagined him closing in on us, had I? "She's a human." The words cut through me like a knife, tearing me in half. "She's…trash."

That was the last straw.

I stood up abruptly and sped off to my room. "Hey, Alexia!" Grimmjow called after me. I didn't pay any heed to him and slammed the door behind me as I entered. I felt trapped, his words echoing in my head. I paced the room for several minutes, searching for an exit I would never find. At a corner of the room, I backed up to the wall and slid down, sobs starting to break through. I wrapped my arms around my legs, burying my head in my knees.

'I do not care for her. She's a human. She's…trash.'

He was right.

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Me: Sorry if it's a little too angst-y at the end T_T I'm trying not to drag this out too much, but I'm failing miserably...

Alexia: Yeah, you are.

Me: You know, for someone who's personality was based off of me, we really don't get along too well -.-

Ulquiorra: It'll just take some time to get adjusted to the fact that you two are almost like twins.

Alexia: We're _so_ not twins! How can someone as blasé as her have a personality spun off from me!?

Me: Personally, I think the exact same thing sometimes T_T but you got something wrong.

Alexia: Yeah, and what exactly did I get wrong?

Me: Your personality is spun off from me T_T

Alexia: …WHAT!?

Ulquiorra: I wonder if she actually thought that she was the one with the original personality.

Me: Sorry to drag you into this -.-

Ulquiorra: No need to worry about me, my tolerance level is extremely high.

Me: ^_^' I can tell. Please review, I don't care if they're good or bad reviews, as long as you write something! As for the video Alexia laughed at, you can find it on YouTube; search, "Ulquiorra levan polka" and be prepared for glasses XD


	2. Creepers and Colors

Alexia: …(dark aura)

Me: Hey, what's with you?

Alexia: What do you think? What you wrote in this chapter is unacceptable!

Me: That's why it didn't go all the way. Believe me, I was just as disgusted as you T_T

Alexia: -.- Suuuure you were.

Me: T_T Would you _like_ it to go all the way?

Alexia: HELL NO!

Me: Then shut up, people are waiting for the story and you're wasting their precious time.

Ulquiorra: I find it mildly fascinating how the two of you talking to each other is almost the same as both of you talking to yourselves.

Me: T_T Thanks for pointing that out.

Ulquiorra: You're welcome.

XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD X

Avoiding.

What the next week contained. No eye contact, no physical contact, no verbal contact. Zero.

I was actually scared. Don't get the wrong idea, it's not like I'm fearless; I'm afraid of tornados, thousands of insects crawling up and down my skin and…um…well, there's not a lot I'm afraid of, either. But this, this was something beyond fear. This was a stage of traumatization. With my over active imagination, I could relay thousands of outcomes of confronting Ulquiorra about what happened. The same went with Grimmjow. If he were to start an argument about what happened, I was destined to lose this time, which would be a first.

It was strange, the way I'd reacted to Ulquiorra saying I was trash; he'd said it plenty of times before, what difference did it make to say it one more time? It was as if I was torturing myself by making me think that saying it that one time was much worse, even though I knew that, Ulquiorra being who he is, there was nothing different about the way he'd said it.

The sound of a plate clattering on a table brought me out of my thoughts as Ulquiorra set my food out. I walked over and sat down in one of the chairs, not acknowledging his existence. I heard his footsteps as he left, then the door shutting quietly. I let out the breath I'd been holding. _Could he have taken any longer?_

As I ate the…whatever it is that they made, all I knew was that it tasted horrible…the memories flood in all too easily. _Shit_, I thought. _I'm not like that at all._

It was true. In my normal life, I would never get so emotional. But I had a tendency to get excited about things I'm crazy about. Bleach, Japanese culture(Japanese food, clothes, er…boys), school, Ulquiorra Schiffer.

Not necessarily in that order.

I was even less emotional with my family, my mom in particular. It might sound mean, but I hate her. She was too emotional and dramatic, not to mention a complete dumbass. I was more like my dad, who was calm and didn't worry about anything. He also didn't talk much or say anything unless it was necessary.

Well, that's what I thought of their personalities before they died in a fire.

This was making me crazy. I knew I wasn't usually like this, but I was living with my favorite characters from Bleach. But I never blush, not for anything! I felt like drowning in my worries and concerns…

The door slammed on its hinges as someone walked in. Knowing Ulquiorra would never think of doing that, my head snaps up and meets a tall figure, its eyes…no, eye, showing arrogance and glee.

"Yo."

Nnoitora.

I took a deep breath, steadying my nerves. He could kill me with a single punch…no worries, right? I waited for him to keep talking, but when he didn't say anything for a minute or so I decided to answer.

"How goes it?" I tried to act casual. If I said something that triggered a negative reaction, there'd be no one here to protect me.

"Not too well," Nnoitora replied. He pulled the chair out across from me and sat down with a thump, making the silverware clatter. "The hell is this shit?" He grabbed the fork that was in my hand and practically stabbed a piece of food(meat?) and looked at it quizzically before putting it in his mouth; only to be spit out on the floor a second later. I raised my eyebrow as he coughed continuously for a few moments.

"Are you going to clean that up?" I asked, pointing to the half-chewed chunk of meat settled on the floor.

"_Cough_! Ah, no," he answered nonchalantly and shrugged.

I made a mental note not to step anywhere in a three-foot radius of that spot on the floor.

"…Right…" I pushed my food away, not exactly hungry after the display Nnoitora put on. "Is there something in particular you came here for?"

"You."

I twitched my eye and sighed before answering. "Can you be a little more exact about that?" If he was referring to what I think he was saying…

"I think you know exactly what I'm talking about, babe," He got up from the chair and walked over to me, then bent over so we were at eye level. His hand reached out to me and I smacked it away, but he reached again more harshly and pulled on the hair on the back of my neck, making me expose some of my neck. He leaned forward and I tried to lean back, but with his death grip there was little I could do. I kept a straight face as his breath fanned across my ear, almost making me shiver. Almost. "Let's play, Lexi."

"No tha—" I was cut off as Nnoitora clashed his lips with mine. I immediately felt disgusted. I felt his tongue trying to enter my mouth, but I held my lips tightly closed as my hands tried to push him off. _Yuck_, I thought. _Yuck, yuck, yuck._

"Mm," Nnoitora hummed as he finally disconnected our mouths after a few excruciating moments, a trail of saliva making a bridge from his to mine. I quickly wiped it off and then wiped my hand on my clothes. I'd definitely have to get more clothing after that, no way was I going to continue wearing these clothes after this. I heard Nnoitora laugh, a cackle that sounded inhuman; well, he _was_ an arrancar, so I guess it made sense. "Don't you dare think we're done yet," he murmured as he pulled my head back. _Shit_!

I tried to push him off again, but to no avail. His mouth started to suck on the skin on my collar, licking and biting harshly. I could feel him grin as he cut through my skin, lapping as blood flowed. He pulled my head back down, giving me temporary relief to the pain that was starting to build on the back of my neck. He licked my chin all the way up to my right temple and I grimaced. I felt absolutely no pleasure whatsoever.

He grabbed my jaw and wrenched it open, then plunged his tongue in. The sensation made me want to gag. This guy's tongue was huge. He was swirling it around and touching all of my teeth and gums, as if exploring. I felt like I was being lifted for a second, then tried to look around me and saw that Nnoitora was straddling my hips. His tongue plunged in deeper and I almost choked. He bucked his hips against mine and I realized the reality of what was happening.

"N-no!" I started to pound my fists against his chest, already knowing it was useless. "Get off, you basta—mmgh! Mrrph, nnh!" I was suffocating, trying to speak while he attacked my tongue, biting it and sucking on it. My attempts at getting him away from me were getting weaker and weaker, knowing now that whatever I tried to do wouldn't work.

Then he stood up a little from the chair and got a crazy idea. He didn't have hierro…there, could he? I brought my knee up and nailed his, er…fuck it, I got his balls head on. With a grunt, he quickly pulled away and grabbed his crotch while falling to his knees. I sprinted to the door and ran out, slamming it behind me. Knowing that the door locked from the outside, I quickly turned the lock to keep it shut. Also knowing how strong he was, it wouldn't take much to break the door open, but I needed time to get away. I ran down dozens of corridors, turning right and left, into dead ends and spacious rooms. After running out of breath a few minutes later, I slowed to a jogging pace and looked at my surroundings.

A long white corridor. Duh. With only two doors…and a code at the top of one of the doors, 4129.

I'd ran in a complete circle(whatever shape I'd made), back to my quarters.

"You have _got_ to be fucking kidding me—!" I fell silent as the door was thrown off of its hinges, a cloud of dust blocking me from seeing ahead. I jumped in surprise as a hand shot out and grabbed me by the neck, choking me. "Gah!"

Nnoitora's grinning face came into view, laughing louder than ever as he saw me writhing and struggling to get free.

"Ha! You don't deserve to have any last words!" Nnoitora kept laughing like a maniac. "You know," he started as I still struggled in his grasp, "I think I prefer killing you to fucking you…or maybe we can do both?" He threw me down, me sliding a good ten feet across the floor. I started coughing and gasping.

Then I saw that he was shirtless. He started taking his pants off. I tried to scoot away but a jolt of pain shot up my left ankle, the same one Ulquiorra had slammed the door on before; shit, I must've hurt it even further when Nnoitora threw me. I felt tears starting to form as Nnoitora grabbed both ankles and pulled me towards him. "No, no, no," I muttered. I went into a fetal position, only to have him stand up and kick me a few times; I could barely contain my scream. I reluctantly unfurled and he wrenched my legs open.

I didn't contain my yelp as he tried to pull my jeans off.

"LET GO!" I started kicking at his face, one kick landing on target.

"You bitch!" He crawled up and straddled my hips, then slapped me. The shock from the slap suddenly made me go submissive. Time seemed to stop as I gave in, no longer trying to fight him. A tear strayed down my face, my face becoming more and more emotionless as my shirt came off, then my bra, shoes, followed by my jeans. He was on the verge of taking off my underwear…

"What in the fuck is going on here!?" Grimmjow's voice rang through my thoughts. My eyes widened as I saw his outline through the dust; it still hadn't completely settled onto the ground yet.

"Stay outta this, Grimm—fuck!" His blue hair was a flash as Grimmjow landed a punch on Nnoitora's jaw, the latter snapping his head to the side and falling off of me. I didn't bother moving from where I was, still in a daze.

"I didn't think you were this much of a bastard, but I guess you don't have limits," Grimmjow remarked with a disgusted glare. He turned to look at me, his eyes held…concern?

No way. I was still in a daze, maybe I was imagining shit.

He grabbed my arm and yanked me up; I almost fell over again if not for him reaching out and holding me at the last second.

"Oi, get the hell away from her! We were just playing around…right, Lexi?" Nnoitora grinned and reached out and tried to caress my face but I leaned further into Grimmjow and he smacked Nnoitora's hand away.

"You better get the hell out of here _right now_, Gilga," Grimmjow warned him. I felt his left arm grip me tighter as he walked towards my clothes and lowered me down. "Get them," he ordered. I got my clothes and hugged them to my body while grabbing Grimmjow's arm to pull myself up.

"Heh." Nnoitora sent me a mischievous and dangerous glare. "This ain't over, babe. It's only started." He calmly started walking away from me. I could only breathe once he'd turned a corner and his footsteps had ceased to be heard. I spaced out, calming myself and taking deep breaths.

"Hey," Grimmjow shook me a few seconds later. "Hueco Mundo to Alexia."

"Uh."

"Would ya mind?" He had led me back into my room, to my queen-sized bed and set me down on it but I still hadn't let go of him. I also realized that I was almost completely naked. I yelped and let go of him, falling onto the bed with my clothes clutched to my body. I tried to cover myself as much as I could without actually putting my clothes on.

"Um…could you go wait outside? If you haven't noticed…" I murmured.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be outside."

As I put on my clothes, I pondered over Grimmjow's sudden appearance. First the incident with Ulquiorra and I, and now when this was happening… it wasn't like I didn't appreciate it, but it seemed way too coincidental.

Great, now I had to thank him.

But I wouldn't until I got an answer from him. I just hoped things wouldn't turn out like when I asked Ulquiorra a question.

After changing, I walked outside of my room and saw Grimmjow leaning against he doorway(what was left of it), looking at me expectantly.

"Is there something you want to ask me?" I inquired.

"Not really," Grimmjow replied, looking away. "Whatcha gonna do about those clothes?"

"Er," I started. "Well, I have seen that you guys have a miniature mall somewhere around here. If you could take me there, I could pick out some clothes there…" I honestly hated going to stores and looking for clothes (I might as well be claustrophobic) but, as I said before, I was probably never going to wear these clothes ever again after what happened. I was lucky I hadn't decided to wear my black sweater, I loved that thing.

"Do you really feel like doing that? I would've thought that if something like that happened to a girl she'd be traumatized and want to shut herself in her room and stay away from people, especially males," Grimmjow commented.

"You know, I honestly though the same thing," I agreed. "But apparently I'm taking it a whole lot better…or maybe I just don't give a shit."

"I guess," Grimmjow said reluctantly and walked down the hall, me following. My sense of direction had proved to be horrible after my attempted escape.

Suddenly another jolt of pain shot up my leg and I fell to my knees, gripping my left ankle as if it was a lifeline. "W-wait," I croaked, my eyes screwed shut from the immense pain. That was strange, why hadn't it started hurting right after I'd finished changing?

"What now?" Grimmjow complained. His expression went from annoyed to slightly worried when he saw me, though. "Oh yeah, your ankle. Ya know, we should probably go see Szayel so he can do something about it."

"You think he'll tell Aizen?"

"Depends how fucked up your ankle is and how it happened. It's not like I'm changing my mind about taking you if he decides to tell Aizen anyways," he responds.

I sighed. "If he asks, say that I sprained it while going down the stairs."

"Wasn't planning on telling him the truth anyways," Grimmjow smirked. "I can always threaten him into making him not tell Aizen if he starts to think about it." He walks over to me and holds his left hand out. "You're not gonna be able to walk without support." I reluctantly took his hand and he pulled me to my feet, then wrapped his arm under me and picked me up bridal style.

"Hey! Put me down!" I ordered. If he said I couldn't walk unless I had support, why did that suddenly mean he was supposed to carry me? _Just give me some damn support_, I thought.

"It's easier this way, just shut up," he answered.

"Can't you just support me while I walk?"

"That takes too long."

"Ass."

"Hole."

"Prick."

"Bitch."

"Don't talk to yourself."

"…"

I mentally did a little dance, knowing I'd won once again. Suddenly, everything went black and I felt like I was falling down, into a bottomless pit…then the surroundings of Las Noches's inner walls came back to me. I felt a bit nauseous. "Gr…imm…jow. W-wha—"

It happened again. The darkness and feeling of falling, followed by coming back to the present. The nausea got a bit worse; I started to form an idea about why this was happening. "Grimmjow, are you—" I got cut off as the darkness came back. This time anger overpowered me instead of the usual nausea, and when the normal surroundings came back I pounded Grimmjow's chest with one fist. "Will you stop that!?"

"Stop what?" he grumbled. This time, he didn't sonido to cut off my speech. "This is faster. We're almost at Szayel's lab, just let me—"

"Don't you get it? I'm not an arrancar, I can't sonido and I'm not used to it either! Unless you want me to regurgitate all over your sorry ass I recommend you _stop_!" I almost felt sorry for yelling in his face, but he needed to think, for once. "And if you don't know what regurgitate even means—"

"I-i know what it means!" he answered hastily. "Fine, we'll walk from here." he set me on the floor and I felt some of my nausea go away. Grimmjow hoisted my left arm over both of his shoulders and we started walking at a slow/moderate pace. I stumbled a few times but I made sure I never fell. Soon we arrived at the door of Szayelapporo's lab. "To tell you the truth," Grimmjow started, "I've only come to his lab once. I just want to warn you: it's okay if you get scared."

"You're not serious," I argued. "I'm sure that whatever is in Szayelapporo's lab can't kill you or me…well, maybe me, but not you."

His pale face told me otherwise.

"Let's go," he told me.

"You don't need to tell me," I replied. We were both startled when, after knocking on the door twice, a screen slid out of the wall next to the door and Szayel's face appeared.

"Ah, hello, Grimmjow. What can I help you with?" Szayel asked, a soft smile on his face. I had a vague feeling that he already knew why we were here.

"Alexia," Grimmjow looked at me and tilted his head in Szayel's direction.

I was about to step forward with my left foot but was reminded not to by Grimmjow, who tugged on my arm, making me give a small yelp of discomfort. "My ankle's…sprained, I think. I was going down some stairs, I tripped and I landed on my left foot when I was falling."

"_Sprained_? Alexia, your foot might as well be broken," Szayel told me. Just great. "Come inside, quickly." The door slid open and Grimmjow and I were led down a long corridor that ended with another door that had a scanner of sorts. "If you would put your left hand on the scanner, both of you." Hesitating for a moment, I took my arm away from Grimmjow's shoulder and hopped over to the scanner. As I put my hand on it, a flurry of lights exploded from it, making me wince. I almost instinctively took my hand back put kept it there out of curiosity.

"My turn," Grimmjow grumbled as the lights faded and Szayel told me that it was alright for me to take my hand away. The same process was repeated, with a curse from Grimmjow as he looked straight into the lights as they turned on. "Piece of shit," he muttered as he took his hand away.

"I heard that," Szayel told him, another screen appearing behind us. One of his arms was crossed, the other resting on it with the hand on his chin; a smirk was on his face and his eyes shone with an I-know-something-that-you-don't look.

"Just how many of these screens do you have?" I asked. "If you have these all over Las Noches…"

"Oh, by all means, no! I only have cameras within a twenty-foot radius of my lab, no more, no less," Szayel explained. "Anyways, after you've entered the next room, I must advise you to do two things: be careful where you step, and do not get close to any of the displays, no closer than two feet. I'll meet you at the table on the far left of the room, you can't miss it." I wondered what was so special about the table that I would be able to tell where it was right away.

The door slid open, leading to a dimly lit room. As Szayel had said, the table was hard to not notice; it was a blinding white that contrasted drastically with the dim room. Szayel himself was standing nearby holding a clipboard, scribbling down notes. He looked up briefly and went back to his notes. "Remember what I advised to you," he reminded me. I nodded and started forward. Though the light wasn't too bright, I could make out several cables spreading out over the floor that I made sure not to step on.

I couldn't help but stare at the unidentifiable objects in the display cases. Some looked like plants, others vaguely like animals and others were something completely different and couldn't be described. One in particular caught my attention; it had a close resemblance to a cat, but instead had what appeared to look like scales instead of fur, pure black and shining. Its green eyes at first reminded me of Ulquiorra's, but then their color suddenly changed and turned to sapphire, then hazel, gray, crimson and then green again. Its paws were also covered with scales. It looked at me, then yawned. It had sharp teeth and its tongue was that of a snake's. It turned in a circle and curled up into a ball, its tail swishing contentedly. I saw that the end of the tail had a small rattle on it.

"Do you like it?" Szayel asked me. I realized that I'd stopped walking altogether to stare at it; I'd even gotten dangerously close to the display case, maybe two and a half feet, half a foot away from what Szayel recommended me to keep my distance as. I felt Grimmjow pulling me back a bit and I started to walk away from the "cat", though my eyes were still glued on it. I nodded numbly, then winced as I accidentally put my left foot on the ground with more force than needed. "Oh my," Szayel said. He set the clipboard down on the table and rushed to my side and hoisting my other arm over his shoulders, making it easier for me to walk. I was set upon the table, where there were a few medical supplies.

"You were saying that I might've broken my ankle?" I asked, trying to break the silence as Szayel gently took my ankle in his hands, softly touching the bruises. One in particular made me jump.

"Well, considering how far the fall was and how much force was in the fall, it was a definite possibility. But now that I'm taking a closer look at it, it seems like a minor sprain. Usually minor things like this come and go in a short amount of time, so it shouldn't be that bad," he told me. _Thank god_, I thought. The thought of walking around with a cast on seemed a bit humiliating. "You can take these painkillers I've made," he said, grabbing a small container with the diameter of a quarter and height of my pinkie, about three and a half inches. "They're chewable and don't taste bad, not to mention they have healing powers as well." He handed them to me and I reluctantly took them. I unscrewed the cap and immediately took one. It tasted like…blueberries, no, dark chocolate…a dozen flavors danced in my mouth, and I couldn't decide which was my favorite. Right after swallowing, a wave of relief washed over me and the pain in my ankle was forgotten. Looking at my ankle, I could already see some of the bruising starting to fade.

"Wow," I murmured. This reminded me of Orihime's powers. "This is amazing."

"Could you stand up for me?" Szayel asked. Slowly, I got up, making sure to not rush and hurt myself. Surprisingly, I could stand just fine and when Szayelapporo asked me to walk I had no trouble doing so. "It looks like you're all healed, luckily it was just a sprain; I imagine if it were broken it would take at leat half an hour to completely heal." I sent him an are-you-kidding-me look. Grimmjow looked surpsised as well.

"_Half an hour?_ Szayelapporo—" I started.

"Please, call me Szayel."

"Szayel, in the human world it takes at least a three weeks to heal a broken ankle, and you're telling me that it would've taken only half an hour with one of these pills?" I said. "This is crazy, Szayel, and I mean that in a good way."

"Please," Szayel started. "I don't need flattery. I appreciate you thinking of my inventions as such, though; I was starting to think no one in Hueco Mundo saw the value in my creations." He went over to a shelf a few feet away and grabbed a vial filled with a dark red liquid. "I have acquired some useful information about you, Alexia." I instantly panicked. Was he going to tell Aizen about what happened? "Just from a few ounces of your blood, I know your IQ score, birth parents, birthplace; your favorite color, animal and meal. I know your height, weight and blood type. You're ambidextrous and play the violin." My eyes widened.

"When did you take a blood sample?" I asked.

"When you were scanning your hand. The lights gave off a distraction while I got your fingerprints and a bit of your blood," he explained. I was completely impressed with Szayelapporo's way of doing things. I didn't feel anything at all while he was taking blood. I'd always thought that extracting blood would hurt a lot more, but with Szayel it almost seemed like it was something I wanted to do more often.

"Did you guys forget about me?" Grimmjow asked. He was standing a few feet away from the table, leaning on the wall with his arms crossed. "Alexia, weren't we supposed to be going to get you some clothes or some shit like that?"

"Oh, right," I remembered. "About the…" I glanced at the, er, "cat" and back at Szayel. He immediately understood what I was trying to say.

"Ah, yes. I mixed the DNA of a snake and cat and I got this," Szayel walked over to the case. He put on some gloves that looked like they wouldn't protect him much if the cat/snake decided to bite him, but when he opened the case and picked it up it didn't do anything aggressive. In fact, it looked like it was comfortable in Szayel's arms. "It's alright to get closer, if it seems cooperative enough you may even be able to touch it if you want," he told me. I inched closer and reached my hand out. I felt insanely nervous as it looked at my hand, probably thinking, _I wonder what this human's hand tastes like._

Then, surprisingly, its tongue flicked out and licked my hand, making me jump a bit. I saw its nose sniffing my hand, taking in my scent. All of a sudden, it craned its head and rubbed its head against the back of my hand, a small purr coming from it. After a few moments, I regained myself and started scratching the back of its ears, making it purr louder; I smiled. "Can I come visit her more often?" I asked.

"Of course," Szayel replied happily. "She seems to take an immense liking to you," he commented. "For now, her species will be named 'Snat'."

Wow, I expected to hear an extremely long and incomprehensible scientific name. "I'll see you later," I told the snat, giving it one last rub behind the ears.

"Hey, what about me?" Szayel asked, smiling.

"Yeah, you too," I said, smiling back.

"I'll say it again: Did you forget about me?" Grimmjow interrupted the happy moment. _Good_, I thought. That was almost way too cheesy a scene for my liking.

"Let's go," I said, watching my step on the way out, this time me taking the lead. I sighed. As strange as the snat was, I felt attached to it and wanted to spend more time with it, but right now I needed some more clothes. And, even though Szayel hadn't exactly given me a good impression of what he was like a week ago, he actually didn't seem that bad.

That didn't mean I would let him experiment on me.

We started walking down the halls and I let Grimmjow take the lead again. Then I remembered something I was planning to do earlier.

"Hey," I called. When he didn't answer, I walked up to him and tugged on a piece of his hair.

"Ow! What the fuck do you want!?" He glared at me, I shrugged and pointed at him, telling him nonverbally that it was his fault for not responding to me.

"I was going to ask you something," I said.

"I'm not answering."

"Yes, you are." I made a grab for his hair again.

"Fine, fine!" He jumped away. "But only if I can ask you a question after you."

"Hm…" I contemplated. What could he possibly ask me? He'd probably question me on what was happening back there even though the answer's as clear as day (or night, in Las Noches). Nothing to lose. "Fine."

"So—" I smacked him on the head. "What the hell did I do now?" He grumbled.

"I get to ask the first question," I said.

"Touchy."

"It's what we agreed to," I remarked. "Ok… why have you been showing up whenever I'm in an…awkward…position?"

"You have to ask that question?" He complained.

"Yes," I replied. "You never told me what kinds of questions I had to ask; besides, what's wrong with this question? Oh, and you just asked me something and I gave you an answer."

"So?"

"You just wasted your question." I let it sink in.

"Wait! No, that's not fair!" He exclaimed, his head snapping around to look at me.

"Life isn't fair, Kit-kat," I teased. After hearing various complaints and cussing I said, "I'll give you one more chance. Be careful."

"Hmph."

"I'm waiting for my answer," I reminded him. We looked like we were getting closer to the small shops, there was a display window advertising various jeans and shirts, along with shoes.

"I need to think about it," he said.

"We're going to be here for an eternity," I muttered.

"I heard that!"

"I know." I opened up the door to the mini-mall and went into the first store, an…_Aeropostale store?_

I should come here more often. If I knew the way.

"I'm going to look for clothes. I'll take no more than half an hour, I want an answer by then," I told Grimmjow. "Hello?" Wow, he really was in deep thought, he hadn't even heard me. "Grimmjow Jeagerjaques!" I bonked his head with my fist; I had to jump a bit to reach (he was taller than I thought, maybe 6' 1", while I was only 5' 7").

"Ouch," he muttered. _Jesus Christ_. "I heard ya." He stood by the door, then crossed his arms and went back to thinking. Maybe he was smarter than I thought…

Yeah right.

It didn't take long for me to pick out a couple of shirts, jeans, a bra(_he_ touched it, did you think I'd keep it?), leggings, a denim skirt and two pairs of shoes; one pair of sandals and one of flats.

I was about to go running back to Grimmjow when I saw a dress, the only one I'd seen in the whole store. I had no idea Aeropostale even made dresses, but this one looked pretty damn gorgeous.

It had two straps and went up to the knee. There were a few sprinkles of glitter here and there, and the color of the dress faded from dark blue to pure black. I reached and touched the fabric and could immediately tell that it was extremely comfortable.

I took the clothes I had and went over to Grimmjow. He looked like he was asleep but when I was less than a foot away from him his eyes snapped open and he looked up at me.

I threw my clothes in a pile next to where he was standing and grabbed his wrist, leading him to the dressing room. I guess he had been asleep because he was mumbling things like, "The fuck?" and "Where am I?"

We arrived at the spot where I'd found the dress. "Listen, sleepyhead," I positioned him so he wouldn't fall over. "I'm going to try this on," I pointed to the dress and grabbed it off of the rack, "And you're going to tell me if it looks good on me." I realized that Grimmjow wouldn't give a shit about how I looked but, in my thoughts, judging upon your own looks is deceiving and a bit egoistic.

He yawned; he reminded me of a cat, his mouth opening wide to show sharp canines, his eyes screwed shut. I wanted to laugh and tease him about it, but then there would be the chance that he would decide to not give his opinion on the dress. "Okay," he mumbled. "Just go put on the damn dress so we can get out of here."

"I hope you've got an answer to my question."

"…Um."

"Stupid," I said and went into the dressing room. I quickly took off my clothes and put the dress on, reaching behind my back to pull up the zipper.

I couldn't reach all the way. I tried everything to pull it up, but I just couldn't. There was one thing I could do, but I definitely didn't want anyone touching me after the incident with a certain Spoonhead.

"G-grimmjow?" I asked cautiously. I stepped out of the dressing room barefoot, with only my underwear and dress on. The style of the dress permitted me to not have to wear a bra; I was feeling incredibly self conscious.

"Hm? What do you want?" He answered. He turned toward the sound of my voice and saw me wearing the dress. He immediately looked away, a blush evident on his face, even his ears; I couldn't believe it, was he embarrassed? _I_ was the one wearing a dress and showing it off to someone.

"Could you help me with this?" I turned around and showed him the back of my dress. There was about four inches that wasn't zipped up, showing more of my back than I wanted. "Just pull up the zipper, okay?" I backed up toward him and he took a step back. "I'm going to bite you if you don't do it," I warned him.

"Aren't you supposed to say that you _don't_ bite?" He asked.

"Not with me," I replied. "I'm going to let that question slide, 'cause you're still half asleep."

"Right," he said. I made sure all my hair was over my shoulder, I didn't want him tangling my hair with the zipper. I felt his fingers touch my back and I stiffened. "Um, are you sure I should be doing this? It seems like you've already been touched enough for today, I don't want to be the one to traumatize you for life."

"If you'd hurry up and zip it, this would already be over," I reminded him. He mumbled a few incoherent sentences and proceeded in pulling the zipper. I jumped when the zipper made contact with my skin; it stung, and I knew there was blood. "Nice job, kitty," I sarcastically scolded him. I went back into the dressing rooms and looked through the mirror, seeing a small trail of blood starting to make its way down my back. _Just fucking great_. I sighed loudly. Trudging out of the room, I asked Grimmjow, "So? Does it look good?"

"Turn in a circle," Grimmjow commanded. Reluctantly, I did so, thinking,_ he better not be checking me out_. "It's fine."

"Just let me take this off and I'll—hey, where'd you go?" He was nowhere in sight. He'd probably told me to turn so he could run for it. "Useless bastard." I started to make my way out, then remembered that I didn't know the way. "That bastard ran off and didn't even bother telling me how to get back."

"Do useless bastards go look for bandages when someone's hurt?" Grimmjow said, sonidoing and appearing behind me. I whirled around and almost fell. He had a small first aid kit in his hands, and was getting out a few cotton balls and a band-aid. It smelled vaguely like alcohol. "Hold still," he commanded. I felt a stinging sensation on my back and I jumped. "I said, hold still," he clamped a hand on my shoulder, refraining me from jolting again.

"Got an answer?" I asked him.

It was silent for a moment, only the sound of a bandage being unwrapped could be heard, that and our breathing. "I can't exactly…tell you," Grimmjow explained. "I can't word my answer in a way that you'd understand."

"That's probably true," I agreed and smirked. "After all, it takes an idiot to know an idiot."

"Hey!"

"Well," I continued, ignoring him, "I guess it was my question that was wasted, in the end. Now, you can ask your question." A small amount of panic started creeping up on me. _Calm down_, I told myself. _There's nothing critical for me to worry about_.

"…"

"Are you going to ask it or not?" I asked.

"You sure you're going to be honest?" He said.

"Is that your question?"

"No!" he answered quickly. "But promise you'll be honest."

I put my right hand over my heart. "I have nothing to hide," I assured him, a bit sarcastic.

"Alright…what are your feelings for Ulquiorra?"

Excuse me?

"Ah…Well, I…um…" I desperately fought the blush that was starting to appear.

"Can't explain it either, huh?" he taunted. I felt the pressure of his hands lift from my back as he finished bandaging my back. "I mean, I wouldn't know, since I'm not a bi—"

"Genius," I corrected. I turned around to look at him. He was stuttering, trying to come up with a good comeback, but couldn't. I smirked. "Alexia–2, Grimmjow Z-E-R-O," I spelled it out for emphasis.

"Oh, shut up."

I went back into the changing room and put my clothes back on; I'd change into something new once I got back to my room. We made our way out of the store, grabbing my clothes on the way out. Deciding to see other stores, I walked along, deep in thought. If what he said about us both not being able to explain how or why we feel and do the things we do, did that mean that Grimmjow had the same feelings for me that I had for Ulquiorra? As it was, I didn't exactly know how to describe how I felt about Ulquiorra; before it had been one of those crush-on-a-fictional-anime-guy sort of thing, but now that he actually existed, I couldn't help but feel like it wasn't some sort of phase. The thought that I might actually have more than a small crush made my mouth go dry and my heart start beating erratically. Just the thought of his cold personality, uncaring gaze, emerald eyes, raven hair with no shine, pale skin and those tear marks…several times I had fought the impulse to reach out and trace those tears when he was close enough. For the most part, I had immediately rejected these feelings whenever they came to mind, but I wouldn't be able to avoid them forever.

"You alright? You're really quiet and your face looks real serious-like," Grimmjow commented. "Don't go Ulquiorra on my ass."

"There's nothing wrong with Ulquiorra being serious," I defended.

"Well, it gets on my fuckin' nerves. That and him calling everyone trash; everyone except the espadas above him and his beloved Lord Aizen." Grimmjow made a disgusted face when he said 'Lord Aizen'. I had to agree; Aizen was the biggest prick in the history of the universe.

"Ulquiorra's not Aizen. And there has to be some reason he calls people trash." I scoffed. "Maybe because it's true." I suddenly felt grim, remembering when Ulquiorra had called me trash, that one time…my breathing was starting to speed up, and I desperately tried to fight my state of panic.

"You _do _know that the only reason I haven't beat the shit out of you is because you've already been through enough today," Grimmjow told me. It seemed like a weight was lifted off my shoulders as Grimmjow's voice cut through my thoughts. I suddenly felt like laughing, a lot. So, I did. I laughed even harder when I saw the look that Grimmjow was giving me. "The fuck's wrong with you?" he asked.

I tried to calm down, I really did, but it took me a while. After I couldn't breathe and my stomach hurt like hell, I could finally form sentences. "I just…I really, really needed…to laugh all…of a sudden," I explained between gasps. After my breathing calmed down some more, I said, "Too much depressing shit's been happening. Sorry if I freaked you out." I shuffled my feet along, then stopped and stared.

There was a wall with paint samples. Hundreds of them at least. I got a crazy idea, one that could get me in a huge knot of trouble, but I felt an adrenaline rush I couldn't resist and I ran over. Grimmjow called after me, asking where I was going, but I didn't answer. Quickly scanning the wall, I picked out three colors; emerald, sapphire, and black. I found the paint cans right away and asked Grimmjow to carry one while I carried the other two. Before we left, I got a few paint brushes and a pack of scrunchies, along with a few cheap tablecloths.

"What exactly are we doing?" Grimmjow asked as he led the way back to my room. He had volunteered to carry two paint cans instead so I could carry the brushes and tablecloths, along with the clothes from the Aeropostale store.

"You'll see," I replied, a grin on my face. _It's time to put some color into my life here_, I thought.

Soon enough, we arrived at my room. The wall and door had already been fixed, by who, I don't know. I didn't really care. I ran in and set everything down. Then I grabbed the tablecloths and started covering everything in the room; the table where I ate, my bed, the couch in the far corner of the room, my dresser and the two chairs set up by the table. Before going to open the paint cans, I grabbed a scrunchie and tied my hair into a ponytail.

I realized that I had nothing to open the paint cans with. _Nice move, Alexia_. I hesitated a bit before turning to Grimmjow.

"Hey, Grimmjow…"

"What?" He had his arms crossed, wondering what I was scheming.

"Could I borrow your sword for a second?"

"Why?" Grimmjow put his hand on his sword, curious why I would need it.

"Stop with the five W's, Grimmjow. I need to open these paint cans," I explained. I held out my hand. "Come on."

"I'll do it," Grimmjow replied and walked over to the cans. In one swift motion, all three paint cans' tops were slashed off.

"Show off," I muttered. I grabbed a paintbrush at random, a medium sized one; then I went over to the black paint and dipped it in. Once it was completely soaked, I pulled it back out and slashed the paint all over the wall, leaving a sloppy splatter of paint on it. I did the same with the other paints, soaking them and then throwing the paint all over the place. I was grinning like a maniac but, quite frankly, I didn't care. "Join me!" I beckoned Grimmjow and tossed him a few brushes I hadn't used. Soon we were both covering the room in paint. Suddenly I felt a splatter of paint slap onto my face.

"Ah."

I narrowed my eyes, a mischievous smile replacing the previous one as I turned to look at Grimmjow. "Oh, you're going to get it now."

"Y-yeah right!" Grimmjow yelled and jumped behind a piece of furniture. We started a wild chase, him running away from me (also using sonido, the cheating bastard) as I chased him across the room, throwing paint at him. I successfully got a shitload of paint on his clothes, face, hair, and a bit even fell into his mouth, which had me laughing and him coughing and sputtering. We were now in the center of the room, my back facing the door. Grimmjow was cornered in the far left of the room. There wasn't much paint left; I grabbed the paint can that held what was left of the black paint and held it over his head. "Stop, please!"

Well, that was a first. My eyes widened as I heard him apologize. A submissive Grimmjow seemed impossible, yet it was happening before my eyes. "Well…" I started, "since you said please, I can't really bring myself to say no…" I lowered the can of paint.

In a flash, Grimmjow snatched the can away and dipped his own brush in it. With a wild grin, he threw some paint at me. Luckily, just barely, I dodged.

"Shit!" Grimmjow cursed.

"Ha. Ha. Ha. Nice try, Kitty," I teased. I turned around to see where the paint had landed.

Which was stupid, because 1) Grimmjow could've thrown more paint with my back turned, and 2) I saw exactly where, or _who_, the painted landed on.

"Ul…quiorra…?" I asked in disbelief. "Um…hey," I said nervously, waving with my left hand; unfortunately it was the hand that I was holding a paintbrush with. I quickly put my hand behind my back, trying to cover up the obvious fact that I'd started all of this. I then realized that it had been the first time in a week that I'd talked to Ulquiorra, and to make it even worse, it was when I was splattering my room with paint that _wasn't_ white.

Well, ain't that a bitch?

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Ulquiorra: I did not make much of an appearance in this chapter.

Me: Don't worry, you'll get plenty of time in the next chapter ^_^

Alexia: What _do_ you have planned for the next chapter?

Me: I have no idea ^_^'

Ulquiorra and Alexia: T_T

Me: -_- Don't worry, I'll think of something. Until then, bye-bye!

Gin: Hey, tha's my line!

Me: Gin, what're you doing here!?

Gin: I'm appearin' in da next chapter, right?

Me: -.-' You guys are pressuring me too much…I'll see what I can do T_T please review, though you don't have to.

Alexia: (whispering) Yes, you do.

Me: DX Stop pressuring my readers, you'll drive them away!

Alexia: (smirks) That's the point.


	3. Why so…surprising?

Me: Heller =.=

Gin: Hey there ^_^

Me: You do know that it's two in the morning right now?

Gin: I could be askin' ya da same thin'

Me: T_T Touché, Gin, touché. Anyways, it's about time we got to the third chapter, don't you think?

Gin: Let's get to it!

Me: Wow, usually I'd be having an argument with Alexia right now, but it seems I don't have to worry about that with you. We should do this more.

Gin: Sure thing!

Me: Alright, enough of our blabbering!

0()0()0()0()0()0()0()0()0()0()0()0()0()0()

"What are you doing?"

It was quite a scene; a once-white room covered with green, blue, and black splotches of paint, Grimmjow and I also bearing our own personal paint marks. Grimmjow more than I, of course. Both of us were sporting wild grins, as if this was the adventure of a lifetime.

So far, it was.

"Well, what does it look like we're doing?" Grimmjow asked Ulquiorra. "She decided the place looked too plain and we both started making this place more colorful. It's a damn good look, too," he commented. "Very rarely you see color on the walls of this goddamn place, and when you do, you find out that it was someone's blood that's being cleaned up as we speak."

Ulquiorra stared at me. I stared back. It was a silent exchange where there were no words involved. If he had asked me something I probably wouldn't know what to answer, anyway.

"Why are you doing this?" Ulquiorra asked.

Well, isn't this just great. Remember what I said about never getting my way?

I didn't want to answer. No, I wouldn't answer. He couldn't make me…could he? This must be karma, now he was the one asking questions, and I didn't want to give answers. Well, if it was, I wasn't going to make it end up like last time; I would give straight answers. Of course, just thinking it won't do anything, now would it?

"It's as Grimmjow said," I answered. "There's not a lot of color in Las Noches, and if I'm going to stay here I might as well make myself comfortable." I knew that I was rushing it, Grimmjow was looking at me as if something was wrong with me. There was, of course.

"Sexta," Ulquiorra started, "Lord Aizen requests your presence in the meeting room." Either he'd completely ignored me, or he was accepting my answer and moving on; I had no idea which it was. Both ticked me off, he could've shown some kind of reaction.

"Tch, fine. It's not like I was enjoying this anyway," Grimmjow muttered. Oh, how badly I wanted to kill him right then. He dropped the paintbrushes on the floor and slammed the door on his way out, making me flinch a bit. Gulping, I realized that now the only ones in the room were Ulquiorra and I.

"You and Grimmjow did this?" Ulquiorra asked, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

"No, it was the little fairies dancing inside my head and giving me advice on life," I said sarcastically.

"Is that not that your brain?"

_Why, you little…_

"No," I argued, a bitter smile on my face. "I was being sarcastic, Ulquiorra Schiffer."

"I am not one to take things as a joke."

"I noticed." I looked at the doorway and saw two open paint cans, but all the paint was still inside the cans, or so it seemed. It occurred to me that these were just recently bought in. But then, that meant…no. No way would Ulquiorra actually help me with this. Maybe the paint was white and he was going to tell me to repaint the entire room. Yeah, that was probably it.

I was in shock as Ulquiorra grabbed a paintbrush, dipped it in a paint can, and started painting the wall. "If you are planning to paint your room," he advised, "you should paint it correctly." The color of the paint was blue-violet. I watched in awe as Ulquiorra's hand gently stroked lines of paint on the wall, the hand that I'd imagined so many times caressing my face…_crap_.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked skeptically. I hesitated before grabbing a neglected paintbrush that had yet to be tainted with paint and dipped it in the other can Ulquiorra hadn't used; the color turned out to be maroon. In a less crazy way than before, I started randomly writing quotes on the wall, waiting for Ulquiorra's answer. The brush was fairly small, so it was easy to write with.

"It was an order from Lord Aizen," Ulquiorra explained. "If you did not know this already, all espadas below the rank of 5 are allowed to paint and add wallpapers, along with decorations, to their room. When I reported to Aizen today, I mentioned that you were acting out of sorts. Like you were exhausted, in a way. He suggested many things for you to do, and painting your chambers was one of them."

"Exhausted?" I asked while continuing to scribble on the wall.

"Almost as if you were tired of the same routines and environment every day."

"Who wouldn't?"

"I am not."

"Yeah, well," I started, "you've always lived here, haven't you? You're used to the white walls and everything."

"I suppose you could say that," Ulquiorra replied. He looked at what I had written and I looked as well; I hadn't really been paying attention to what I was writing.

"To be or not to be; that is the question–Shakespeare," Ulquiorra read aloud. "Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it–Andre Gide."

_ Ulquiorra would make one sexy-ass Hamlet._ I shook my head, clearing that thought.

"They're quotes said by famous people of the world. Some of them are dead; actually, a lot of them are, but there's a fair amount who are still alive," I explained.

"For fools rush in where angels fear to tread–Alexander Pope," he continued. "An eye for an eye only ends up making the world blind–Mahatma Ghandi. What doesn't kill us…makes us stronger. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche." I noticed he had hesitated in the middle of the sentence before continuing. My eyes narrowed, pondering over the reason he would do that. The next quote surprised me; I definitely didn't remember writing this one, and if Ulquiorra read it, I wasn't sure how he'd react. "A thing of beauty is a joy forever; its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness–John Keats." I saw his eyebrows come together a bit in confusion. _His aspect of death is nihility_, I thought to myself. _Of course he'd disagree with that one._

"I don't really know why I started writing all that down," I told him. "Especially…the last one."

"The last quote makes absolutely no sense whatsoever," Ulquiorra remarked matter-of-factly. Then he surprised me (once again) by painting over the quote with the blue-violet paint he was using. I snickered. _Two can play at that game_, I thought. I painted a heart on top of the section where Ulquiorra had painted (the area was about 3 feet square), then wrote the words '**Ulquiorra's Heart**' in the middle with the paintbrush in my left hand, its color black.

"There," I said. "Now…g-give me your hand," I stuttered. I wasn't sure if Ulquiorra was going to let me do what I wanted to, I just hope he didn't ask why I needed his hand…

"Why do you need my hand?"

_Fuck_.

"Just do it, Ulqui-cielago," I said. Reluctantly, he held his left hand towards me, palm up. I took it and gently covered his palm in black paint, then each of his fingers. I expected him to immediately take his hand back, but surprisingly, he didn't.

After covering his hand in paint, I grabbed his wrist and pressed his hand to the wall, just below where I wrote "**Ulquiorra's heart**." Knowing what I was doing now, he kept his hand there when I let go of his wrist.

"Why are you doing this?" Ulquiorra asked me. I thought about it for a second; why _was_ I doing this? There wasn't really a reason to put his handprint on the wall...

"Because I wanted to." He stared at me. "What? I'm answering honestly, I really don't know why I did this." I took his hand off the wall. His handprint was there, everything was perfect, even his fingerprints were visible; but they weren't like anything I'd ever seen. Instead, they looked like they formed a picture and not a pattern. His fingerprints looked like…little bats. I didn't know if I should be amazed or start laughing.

"Is there something you find amusing?" Ulquiorra asked. Great, I thought. I probably have an idiotic grin plastered on my face right now. He leaned in closer to the wall to look at his handprint, also coming closer to my face. I prayed to all the gods I knew that I wouldn't blush. I took a few deep breaths, calming myself, although I still felt nervous.

"Y-your fingerprints," I stumbled. "They look like b-bats." I fought the urge to smack myself for being so fidgety. Clearing my throat, I said, "Fingerprints have three basic patterns: the loop, arch, and whorl. But your fingerprints seem to form a picture…a bat, to be exact."

"Why would my fingerprints be important?"

"You're just full of questions today, aren't you?" I commented.

"I did not notice before," he replied. "I will ask you one more question."

"What now?" I ask. Not being able to stand the close range anymore, I stepped away a bit from him. I felt a little less claustrophobic now.

"What happened to you?"

"…What are you talking about?" I asked nervously.

"I was not here in time to see what was going on, but you seem more restless than you have been this past week. I want to know what has happened to you," he explained. I gulped. Am I really that easy to read? I thought. I'm getting soft.

"Well…I…"

"Was it Grimmjow?"

"What?" I asked.

"Did Grimmjow do something to you?" he repeated more clearly. I suddenly felt a bit mad.

"Of course not! It was Nnoitora, he…er…"

"What did he do?" Ulquiorra said. I could sense a bit of urgency in his voice, although it was hard to notice.

My anger level rocketed. "Nnoitora tried to take advantage of me, ok!? And he would have if Grimmjow hadn't intervened at the last minute! And the only reason Nnoitora was able to do what he did to me was because, apparently, you had better things to do and were too stupid to notice!" I realized too late what I had said. I clamped a hand over my mouth, already knowing I wouldn't be able to take back what I'd said. Tears were at the corners of my eyes, threatening to come out. It was then that I realized that that incident had effected me, more than I thought. Screwing my eyes shut, I tried to calm down, taking shaky breaths. I made my way over to the couch, threw off the plastic tablecloth and plopped myself down on it. Grabbing a pillow, I clutched it to my chest.

"I believe that was your fault, not mine."

That was the. Last. Fucking. Straw.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, IT WAS 'MY FAULT'!?" I screamed at him. Before I knew what I was doing, I hurled the pillow I was holding at his face. As if he was expecting it all along (maybe he was) he caught it with ease just before it could make contact with his face. His head peeked out and stared at me.

"Do you truly not notice?" he asked.

"If you're talking about you being an asshole, of course I noticed!"

"Woman, whenever I leave your room you lock the door," he explained. "I did not need to worry about someone coming in if you lock your door."

"I…do?" I asked. My anger was replaced with confusion. Wait… "How do you know that?"

"I can hear you locking the door right after I have left. You seem eager to lock me out."

Crap, that _didn't_ mean he was paying attention to me.

"Yeah, well, you can't always depend on me, you know," I remarked. "And…um…I don't really feel eager…about locking you out. Especially since you're the only one who visits me…" I felt a bit guilty for screaming at him now, he was only assuming that I'd lock the door like all the other times I had. I looked away as the usual blush came onto my face.

"I suppose so. If you feel that you need company Lord Aizen can arrange something for you," Ulquiorra suggested, putting the pillow back on the couch.

"Nah," I replied, dismissively waving my hand. I was surprising myself; I was talking to him so calmly (well, I was now) despite the incident from last week. I was even getting used to being close around him, Blushing Alexia was appearing less now. "You're good company, even if you don't say anything. Sometimes it's better that way."

"Am I?"

"Yep," I replied. "I'd prefer you over Nnoitora any day."

"…What about Grimmjow?"

"Huh?" What was this? Was he asking if I preferred Grimmjow over him? "What do you mean?"

He took a step towards me. "You seem comfortable around Grimmjow. Is he good company as well?"

"I-i guess so…" I was getting nervous, but I didn't know why. The atmosphere seemed tense.

Then he changed. His emerald green eyes changed to crimson. If possible, his skin turned even paler than before, and his lips turned into an extremely light shade of pink, almost white as well. Taking his hands out of his pockets, I saw that his nails were also crimson. His hair turned white, growing up to his hips. He grew a few inches right before my eyes, now almost as tall as Grimmjow. Strangely enough, my first thought was, _he looks like a god_. "Heh," a voice that was a few tones higher than Ulquiorra's said. His voice, if possible, sounded like silk. Ulquiorra's voice sounded like that as well, but this person's voice sounded like it held more emotion, making his voice seem inviting. "Looks like he's let his guard down. Which means—" the other person started, walking up to me and putting his index finger on my right temple, "—You're something special."

"W-what…do you mean?" I asked, not daring to move as his finger trailed from my temple to my chin, then up to my right temple, the middle of my forehead, and stopped between my eyes. I just barely controlled my breathing, resisting the urge to slap this—this _thing's_— hand away. Nothing about this thing's presence felt like Ulquiorra; it seemed more sinister and less tolerant, as if there was a sign above his head that flashed, 'don't get on my nerves or I'll fucking kill you.'

"It's pretty simple, princess." He grabbed my chin, forcing me to look up at him. "I'll tell you everything you need to know, but first…" he turned my head to the side, exposing my neck. From the corner of my eye, I could see a smirk; there were two canines that seemed way too sharp for my liking.

"Please stop," I murmured.

"Trust me," the other thing said. "You don't want me to—shit!" He hissed and let go of my neck abruptly, staggering back. Confused, I stared as he fell to his knees, cradling his head to the point where it seemed he wanted it to break off. "No!" he screeched. "You can't—"

"Get out!" My eyes widened as I heard Ulquiorra's voice. The other person's image seemed to waver, his hair getting shorter and darker. Looking into his eyes, I almost thought I saw flames furiously burning in them; then they started to change back into Ulquiorra's eyes. His lips returned to black. His crimson nails turned pure black; the few inches he had gained in height were now lost. "You cannot…have me yet," Ulquiorra's voice croaked. I didn't know what to do; this shit never happened in Bleach, why the hell was it happening now? "Or…her." As Ulquiorra finally emerged again, he fell to the floor, panting heavily, his eyes screwed shut.

"Ulquiorra?" I asked, panicking. He didn't acknowledge the fact that I was there, worried out of my mind. "Ulquiorra!?" I was afraid to get closer to him; what if he transformed again?

All those thoughts went through the door as a blood-curdling scream came from his lips.

"ULQUIORRA!" I ran over to him and knelt on the floor, trying to think of what to do. Looking at his face, I could only understand that he was going through immense pain. I suddenly felt like someone had stabbed my heart; I grabbed Ulquiorra by his shoulders and hugged him to my body, tears flowing down my face as he gripped my arms. "Ulquiorra, please, say something!" I ran my fingers through his raven hair. So many times I had imagined myself doing that, but I never thought it would be like this. I realized that the death grip Ulquiorra had on my arms was slowly decreasing. "Ulq-q-uior-rra," I stuttered between sobs.

"Ulquiorra, you bastard, there's nobody—what the hell happened!?" Grimmjow appeared at the doorway. He ran over and knelt next to me. "Crap."

"What happened to him!?" I begged, grabbing the front of Grimmjow's jacket with one hand and holding Ulquiorra with the other. "Why is he like this!?"

"Hey, calm down!" Grimmjow said. "I'm going to have to do a lot of explaining, though…"

"F-fine," I said, letting go of his jacket and standing up, propping Ulquiorra onto my shoulders. He was heavier than I thought; Grimmjow helped me. "You can explain later. What should we do with him?"

"Well, for now, put him in his room. Szayel should know what to do from there. I know the way to his room, I'll go to Szayel and you'll stay with Ulquiorra, alright?"

"O-ok." A few steps out the door, I almost tripped. "S-sorry," I murmured. It seemed like a whole century passed before we reached his room. Kicking the door open, Grimmjow lead the way to his bed and I set Ulquiorra on the bed as gently as I could, then hoisted his feet onto it and made sure he wasn't in an uncomfortable position. Getting a full view of him, I saw him go into a fetal position, his breathing still ragged and eyes screwed shut. Seeing him like that, I felt like crying my heart out again, but held back only out of sheer willpower to not be a sobbing mess in front of Grimmjow. I didn't hold back, though, from sitting on the floor near the edge of the bad and taking one of Ulquiorra's hands. It was…deathly cold. I pressed his hand to my forehead, a single tear escaping my eyes.

"I'm gonna get Szayel," Grimmjow said. "Just stay there, ok?" I nodded subconsciously and heard the door click shut. I took a shuddering breath and cried.

It felt horrible. I'd never cried this badly before, even when I heard of a family member's death. Even when I found out that my parents had been planning to disown me because I apparently 'wasn't doing anything with my life', which I suppose was true. Even when I witnessed my friend committing suicide because her sister had gotten into a heated argument and called her a whore after she caught her kissing another girl. It felt like the world was closing in on me, and no matter how hard I tried to fight it, I knew that whatever I did wouldn't change things in the slightest.

I jumped when I felt a hand on my shoulder; looking up, I saw a worried Szayelapporo holding his hand out for me to take. Quickly, I wiped my eyes and stood up, letting go of Ulquiorra's hand. "Did you see what happened to him?" he asked me.

"Yes," I murmured.

"If you can, please explain what you saw," Szayel prodded.

"He…," I started, "He changed. His eyes…turned crimson. His nails, too. His hair was…white, and long. He grew taller. He had…fangs." It brought anger and pain to remember the other person who was, from what I'd heard Ulquiorra say, trying to take over Ulquiorra's body and soul. I saw Szayel and Grimmjow exchange a knowing glance.

"I will take care of Ulquiorra," Szayel assured me. "For now, please go with Grimmjow, back to your room."

"Please," I said, "I feel like this is my fault. If there's something I can do…"

"I'm afraid, for now, the best thing to do is to stay away from him awhile. Grimmjow will explain, so please make your way back to your room, Alexia," Szayel told me.

I remembered what Ulquiorra had told me a week ago. _'I don't want to hurt you. Stay away from me.'_ Even though it had been a week since he'd said it already, I still felt a bit of anger and pain, although now I knew why he'd said that for. _You were trying to warn me_, I thought. _And me being the stupid person I was, I didn't listen to you._

"Ok." I walked over to Grimmjow, not making contact of any kind with him. "Are we going?" I stopped at the door, putting my hand on the knob. Sparing a last look at Ulquiorra, I saw that he seemed to be asleep now, his figure more relaxed, although his facial expression was still one of mild pain.

"Let's go," Grimmjow said, opening the door and going out with me in tow. "Let her know what happens, Szayel."

"Of course," Szayel replied with a melancholy smile.

There are people who say that silence is golden.

If I had to describe the silence on the way to my room, I would say that it was shitty as hell.

Grimmjow opened the door to my room and I walked in. Expecting him to follow, I pulled out both chairs at the table and sat down in one of them, but was surprised to find that Grimmjow was nowhere in sight. I ran back out the door and saw a flash of blue hair turning around the corner; instinctively, I ran after him. He was using sonido which made it more complicated to catch up to him.

"H-hey!" I gasped. He stopped sonidoing abruptly, his back still turned. I slowed to a stop. "Why don't you come in? You shouldn't just leave me like that."

"I didn't know you wanted me there," he replied.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because you hate me?"

"Woah. When did I say that I hated you?" I asked.

"Isn't it always like that? I argue with you, you argue with me, you always win, we hate each other more after that."

"I never thought about it that way," I replied. "I consider it to be more like rivalry than hardcore hate. Besides…I need someone with me right now, and I'm not inviting Nnoitora anytime soon." Grimmjow looked over his shoulder at me, his expression portraying shock.

"Well, I thought we were enemies of some sort…"

"Well," I mimicked, "for the time being, we're not, ok?"

"I…guess," he said, a small blush on his face. He fully turned around and walked back to my room. When we were both seated at the table, an uncomfortable silence grew. I started tapping my fingers on the table, deep in thought about Ulquiorra. _Jesus Christ, Alexia,_ I thought. _Stop thinking about him 24/7, you're just making the situation worse than it already is._

"Hey, Szayel said that you were going to explain something to me; is it about what happened to Ulquiorra?" I asked.

"Yeah," he replied, scratching the back of his neck. "It pretty much happened to all the espadas and arrancars. It's going to take some time to explain, though—"

"I have plenty of time," I reminded him.

"Just don't interrupt or I'll lose tracks of my thoughts."

"I'm all ears," I told him.

"Alright," he said, clearing his throat. I didn't bother to tease him on how smart he was trying to act. "I'm guessing you already know the process of how we went from hollows to adjuchas, right?"

"Yes," I replied. "I think they remove their masks, and with the hogyoku…well, I'm still a bit confused about how the hogyoku turned you into arrancars."

"Yeah, well, you got the main point. So, after that, when we're going through the process of transforming into arrancars, there's a certain test you have to pass. It doesn't matter what your strength is, you have to do it or you won't become an arrancar. The test…well, you have to battle someone. You don't know who it is or why they were chosen to be your opponent, but all you know is that you had to defeat them.

"My opponent was pretty strong, but I noticed that she was my complete opposite. It was like a game of tag, fighting her. If I was angry, she was glad. If I was in despair, she was telling me her hopes and dreams. I realized that she was my 'other self', the person I'd never want to be. So, technically, I had to defeat the person I didn't want to become. Once I figured that out, it was pretty easy to kill her.

"I've heard rumors about Ulquiorra, though. One of them was that he never fully defeated his other self, and when his emotions aren't in check, that other person takes control. Another one I heard was that the Ulquiorra we know is actually the person the original Ulquiorra fought; meaning that the real Ulquiorra lost and the other Ulquiorra took over."

"…" I pondered, letting all the information sink in. The latter rumor didn't seem as probable. "I think the first one isn't a rumor. From what I saw, it seemed that the person Ulquiorra transformed into was the person he didn't want to become. When he was changing back he said, 'You can't have me yet'." I left out the 'or her' part. I didn't exactly know if I'd imagined it, even though the rest seemed crystal clear.

"Yeah, I guess the second option wouldn't make much sense," he agreed.

Sighing, I got up from the table, trudged over to the bed, ripped the tablecloth off and flopped down on it, my head resting on my arms. When his emotions aren't in check… "I can't help but feel that this is my fault," I commented. I closed my eyes, remembering how Ulquiorra was acting before he changed.

**_ "You're good company, even if you don't say anything. Sometimes it's better that way."_**

**_ "Am I?"_**

Curiosity_._

**_ "Yep. I'd prefer you over Nnoitora any day."_**

**_ "…What about Grimmjow?"_**

Skepticism.

**_ "Huh? What do you mean?"_**

**_ "You seem comfortable around Grimmjow. Is he good company as well?"_**

…Jealousy?

**_ "I-i guess so…"_**

"Do you think…" I started, "I caused Ulquiorra's feelings to go out of check?"

"Hey—" Grimmjow tried to stop my thoughts.

"Something I did ticked him off or something. The only reason he changed into that other thing was because of me." I sat up and brought my knees to my chest, my arms wrapped around my legs and my face in between them.

"Alexi—"

"If I hadn't been there, he wouldn't be in pain right now," I croaked out, tears starting to form again. "If only I wasn't so irritating, he would've kept his emotions in check and—"

"ENOUGH!" Grimmjow yelled at me, making me flinch. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him coming towards me and I backed away, afraid he was going to hit me. I felt his weight on the bed and scooted further back, almost hitting my head on the front board of the bed. His arm reached out and I screwed my eyes shut, awaiting the blow.

I certainly wasn't expecting him to hug me.

"Wha…" I gasped, Grimmjow's arms wrapped around me, squeezing me to him.

"You dumbass," he scolded. "None of this is your fault. Don't go blaming yourself without thinking about how it affects other people." I was as still as a statue while he embraced me. Then I realized that he was trying to comfort me, not trying to hit me.

"Grimm…" I murmured. I let my tears flow freely as I hugged him back, hanging on to his jacket and burying my head in the side of his neck, taking shuddering breaths. "Do you think…Ulquiorra will be alright?"

There was a moment of silence. "Yeah," he answered. "And if he doesn't, I'll kick his ass for making you cry." I noticed that he was being way too soft for his usual character; I mean, since when would he kick someone's ass because they made someone else cry? I felt so comfortable in his embrace; I felt a drowsy feeling coming over me.

"Grimmjow…"

"Yeah?"

"You smell like a cat."

"N-no, I don't," he argued, letting me go. It was a bit awkward, one moment he was hugging me and the next I was making comments on how he smelled. "At least, I don't think I do." He sniffed his hand while I tried to hold back my laughter.

"If I had a camera with me…" I said.

"Hm?" Grimmjow said, looking at me with confusion. "What's a camera?"

_Don't facepalm yourself, don't facepalm yourself, don't facepalm yourself…_

I facepalmed myself. "Aizen really doesn't have any computers or videotaping devices that are actually worth using, does he?"

"Is whatever you're talking about as good as you're making it seem?"

"You wouldn't believe," I started. "You're missing out on a lot. Then again…er, maybe it's better that way." I remembered the yaoi fanfictions all over the Internet and immediately thought, _I don't think Grimmjow would ever look at Ichigo the same way again if he read a GrimmIchi fanfic._

"Why would it be better if I didn't know?"

"It's…a long story." I tried to avoid the subject, which made me think of something I should've done a long time ago. "Grimmjow, thank you."

"Huh? What for?" he asked.

"Where do I start?" I said. "Well, for one, you prevented me from getting raped. I did some really fun things today, and the fact that I did those things with you made it all the more fun. And when I was being an emotionally unstable bitch, you decided to comfort me instead of getting mad."

"I-it was nothing," Grimmjow assured, blushing. I snickered, earning a glare from him. "What?"

"You know, you blush a lot when you're around me. If I didn't know better, I'd say that you were in love with me," I remarked, smirking as his blush grew darker; but somewhere in the back of my head, I felt worried. _What if it was true?_ "Hey, can I touch your hair?" I asked.

"Why would you want to do that?" he said. I didn't answer and crawled up behind him, running my fingers through his blue locks. They were surprisingly soft and silky; I wasn't sure what I'd expected his hair to feel like, but 'soft' and 'silky' definitely weren't on my list. I hesitated before leaning in closer and smelling his hair. It had a fresh scent to it and, just like before, smelled a bit like a cat. Or a panther, I thought. "You're one weird chick, ya know that?"

I ignored his comment. I got an idea, since he was off guard…I used my index finger to poke him under his left arm, making him jump. I did the same with his right side. I heard a stifled laugh I smiled. I attacked him, ticking his sides while he tried twisting out of my grasp, laughing and gasping for air.

"Sto—ahahahahaha! S-stop tha—Pfft! Hahahaha!" Grimmjow's speech was cut off.

"~Looks like found your weakness~," I teased.

"Hm? Am I interruptin' somethin'?" A voice asked. I looked up and saw Gin's foxlike face staring at us, head tilted to the side in curiosity.

"D-don't get any damn ideas!" Grimmjow exclaimed, scooting away from me. "She was just—"

"I wanted to know what his hair felt like, and along the way I felt like smelling it as well," I explained calmly. "I also wanted to know if arrancars were ticklish."

"Ya let 'er smell yer hair, Grimmy? I didn' know ya were tha' submissive," Gin remarked, smiling.

"Shut up! I just didn't care!" Grimmjow defended. "I never told her she could, anyways."

"Frankly, if you didn't want me to, you would've just pushed me away," I voiced my thoughts.

"I gotta go," Grimmjow mumbled, getting off of the bed and making his way out the door, using sonido to get past Gin, only to have Gin use flash step to catch up to him. "Would ya mind getting out of the way?"

"I don' wanna," Gin whined, following Grimmjow as he tried to sonido away again. And again…and again. For about a minute, I watched as Grimmjow desperately tried to get away from Gin, but to no avail.

"Dammit, just let me go already!" Grimmjow yelled.

"But I need ta tell ya somethin'," Gin said.

"What!?"

"Aizen wants ta talk ta ya. An' don' worry, ya' can find 'im in da main meetin' room," Gin assured.

"Then you should've let me leave earlier!" Grimmjow exclaimed. "I'd be there already if you hadn't blocked my path!"

"An' how would ya know dat Aizen wanted ta talk ta ya if I didn' tell ya?" Gin questioned him. Grimmjow stammered for a few seconds, not able to come up with an answer.

"I'll, uh, see if I have time to…come again," Grimmjow muttered, his eyes glancing at me before turning away and out the door. "Don't be surprised if I don't, though."

"I'll be waiting," I replied, waving my hand, making sure to flex each finger in a semi-seductive way. The door was almost slammed, but for some reason it seemed that Grimmjow was actually considering how much of a bother it would be to other people if he did that, and wasn't as loud. Or it could just be my imagination.

Yeah, it was my stupid imagination.

"Uh, hey, Gin," I said, turning my attention to him. "Did you come here for any reason in particular?"

"Not really. Jus' bored, heard 'bout wha happened ta Ulqui-chan," he said casually. My eyes widened.

"H-how did you—"

"I wen' ta Szayel's lab, saw 'im there and asked 'bout it," he explained, already knowing what I was going to ask. "Ya scared?"

"Well…" I really thought about it. I was scared at the time, but somehow it seemed that Grimmjow had managed to calm me down drastically. I remember how much I'd cried for Ulquiorra…or was it for me? Was I crying out my fear instead of the pain Ulquiorra was going through?

No way, I thought. Just the thought of him being in pain made a clenching feeling go through my chest. All of me wanted that pain to go away. I don't care what I'd have to do, if I could do anything to take away his pain, I would do it.

"Are ya alright? Ya seem sorta sad," Gin commented. I snapped out of my trance.

"I was just thinking. It's not so much that I'm scared…it's more like…it hurt to see Ulquiorrra hurting like that," I tried to explain, hoping he would get it. "And I knew I couldn't do anything to take his pain away." I couldn't fathom why I was telling Gin this, but I felt as if another weight was being lifted off my shoulders.

"Ah, don' worry," Gin comforted me. He walked up to me, got on the bed, and put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me close. "This 'appens sometimes, an' every time 'e pulls through. Dis time shouldn' be different," he said. _People just really feel like hugging me today_, I thought to myself.

I took a deep breath. "This has happened before?" I asked.

"Course it 'as! But, this time 'e seems worse," Gin commented. _Well, isn't that comforting_, I thought. "Eh, I think 'e is jus' as strong as ya might think, maybe a lil' more. As I said before, don' worry."

"Thank you, Gin," I said, shrugging out of his hold on me. "I'm glad you came to comfort me, and—"

"Oh, I didn' come ta comfort ya," Gin corrected me. I suddenly felt a bit suspicious of him.

"Then why did you come here?"

"Szayel wanted me ta tell ya somethin'," Gin started. "An' Aizen told me ta tell ya somethin', too."

"Would you mind telling me the bad news first?" I asked.

"Ulqui-chan can' be yer warden no more." My heart seemed to stop beating. "Aizen's orders."

"T-then how is Ulquiorra? Is he ok? How bad is he?"

"Calm down, A-lex," he said, pronouncing my name with an accent on the 'A' and saying it as in the word 'angry'. "I told ya already, this 'appens an' every time 'e pulls through."

I blinked a few times, calming my breathing. "So…who's going to be checking on me now?"

"Grimmy."

Strangely enough, I felt a bit of relief. Followed by disbelief. "Really?" I asked Gin.

"Mhm," Gin replied. "Tha's why Aizen needed ta talk ta 'im. I imagine Aizen's tellin' 'im right now."

"Oh." I couldn't think of how Grimmjow would react. Anger, surprise, annoyance…joy? After all that'd happened today, I found it hard to know for sure. "Ah, you said that Szayel had told you something to tell me, too, right?"

"Oh, yeah!" Gin said excitedly, making me think he was just putting on a façade to mask the fact that he knew I was going to ask. "He said, 'Ulquiorra will be able to be back to his normal self in about a week. He'll be staying in his quarters. I have discussed with Aizen and we have come to an agreement. Starting tomorrow, you will be Ulquiorra's warden. He can be very stubborn, so make sure he does not get out of his bed no matter what; he needs rest, of all things. Come to my lab tomorrow and I'll give you his medication, along with a few other tips."

_Oh my god. He's talking normally_, I thought.

"A-lex? Didya hear meh?" Gin asked, his usual accent back.

"Hey, Gin?"

"Yeah?"

"I like you a lot more when you have your accent."

"Hehe, I know, right? Talkin' normally's hard work," he said with a sigh. "Well, I gotta go now. Ya should get some Z's, it's almost midnight in da world of da livin'."

"Sure," I replied, getting off of the bed to pull some of the covers back. It seemed that Gin had pulled a spell on me, or maybe a kido; the moments he told me that I should go to sleep, I felt drowsy. I didn't even notice when Gin shut the door and left while I put on a pajama shirt I saw at Aeropostale. Crawling under the covers and pulling them up to my waist, the cool feel of the bed's sheets lulled me further into sleep, but not before I started pondering.

What if…Grimmjow actually enjoyed being around me? What if Ulquiorra didn't recover from his condition? What if…no, what was I going to do when the plot of the story came to their fights with Ichigo? How would I be able to change any of that, anyways? Thinking too much, I fell into a deep sleep. I suddenly felt someone pulling the covers up to my shoulders; not being able to think clearly, I said, "Goodnight, Gin." It was the first person I'd thought of.

"Night, Alexia," a voice that wasn't Gin's replied.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O?

Me: ^_^ I ended that pretty well, didn't I?

Alexia: (Yawns) I just had the—

Me: DX Don't spoil it!

Alexia: =.= You already know what I dreamt of?

Me: (Smirks) Girl, I know your life story

Alexia: O.o

Gin: Yay! I came out in dis one!

Me: Well, I did say I'd work something out, didn't I?

Gin: ^_^ Mhmm

Grimmjow: You're all loud as fuck…

Me: T_T You would know

Grimmjow: O.O N-no, I wouldn't

Alexia: So, when did you decide to get your lazy ass up and talk to us?

Grimmjow: Actually, all of you are so annoying I might just go back to sleep now -.-

Me: I'll make your life miserable if you even think about taking a nap, Jaegerjaques T_T

Grimmjow: Fine, fine, I won't go to sleep

Me: Say the R word T_T

Grimmjow: O.o reta—

Me: O.O no! -.- Ugh, I meant review

Grimmjow: Oh T_T Review, or I will grow wrinkles from sleep deprivation

Me: And no one really wants that ^_^ So yeah, buh-bye

Gin: See ya later!

Alexia: Mhm

Grimmjow =-,= zzz

Me: (whispering) I almost forgot, I'm starting school today *:.｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:* so there's a chance I might be updating less often, but I'll try to publish as often as possible. For my followers, the next time I update will be the seventh of September, I'm going to start updating on the weekends ^_^ See ya then


	4. It can wait

Me: I finally have a plot, guys!

Alexia, Grimmjow and Gin: O.O

Ulquiorra: T_T

Me: ^_^ Gin, you opened your eyes...

Alexia: What did you expect? To think that you actually have a storyline…(shudders)

Me: T_T Gee, thanks

Grimmjow: This can't be good…

Me: I can always change the plot and torture you ^_^+++

Grimmjow: I think I liked you better when you just went along with your instinct and wrote whatever the hell popped into your head

Me: T_T I think I liked you better when you were asleep (pushes Grimmjow into a bedroom and locks him in) Now that he's taken care of...

Gin: Am I gonna be in da plot?

Me: Occasionally

Gin: Alright!

Me: TT_TT I love how you don't judge me

Ulquiorra: …

Me: You alright, there?

Ulquiorra: I cannot believe you put me though all that

Me: I'm sorry -.- It's not like I didn't get all teary-eyed when I wrote it

Ulquiorra: (Yawns cutely :3) I suppose you will make it up to me somehow. I will go back to my chambers now, I still need a few hours of rest

Me: O/./O G-go ahead

Ulquiorra: (Leaves)

Alexia and I: …

Me: (Stares at Alexia)

Alexia: (Stares at me)

Both: HE'S MINE!

Gin: 'Ere's the fourth chapter, everyone!

My past was something I never really pondered on. If something happened, it happened, and we couldn't do anything about it. We being…I don't know, humans? That wasn't the point.

But I guess my conscience wanted me to do a whole lot of reflecting, since my dream tonight was an event in my life. And it wasn't exactly happy.

_** "Ne, Alexia-chan?" Sammy said, a grin on her face, green eyes sparkling.**_

_** "Mixing in Japanese with your English?" I asked. We were at our school's playground, under the cherry blossom that both of us adored; it was the only one in our neighborhood. I had bought her lunch once again, she'd forgotten her own money. Again.**_

_** "Hai," she replied briskly.**_

_** "Watashi wa anata no nihongo no akusento, samī ga daisuki," I shot back at her, laughing when an annoyed look came over her face.**_

_** "You know I'm not that good yet," she muttered.**_

_** "I said, 'I love your Japanese accent, Sammy.' I wish mine was like that," I half-whined while chomping on a slice of mango from the tree that grew in my backyard.**_

_** "Aw, you love my accent and not me?" She asked, winking and sticking her tongue out. I immediately glared at her and attacked, tickling her where she was the most sensitive, her neck and the underside of her arms. After a river of tears were streaming out of her eyes and she could barely breathe, I decided to stop.**_

_** "You know what I mean," I told her, smiling.**_

_** "Hehe, yeah," she said. Finishing the rest of,my lunch, I fell back onto the grass, to stare at the sky, my hands behind my head. I looked over at Sammy; she was still munching on the small baby carrots that had come in a small package with the rest of our lunch.**_

_** "Hey, Sammy, I have m&ms with me." I smiled as her head whipped around to look at me.**_

_** "Where!?"**_

_** "Here," I said, pulling the packet out of the pocket of my sweater. I didn't even have a chance to look at them before she snatched them away and tore the package open. "Wow, so much for buying you lunch, you could survive on those alone."**_

_** "Mhmm!" She agreed happily, munching away. Even without looking at her, I knew that she was sorting the m&ms by color. She'd eat the browns first, then the oranges, yellows, reds, greens and blues last; it was one of her weird habits. I spaced off, staring at the cloudless sky, the sun's warmth slowly lulling me to sleep. I snapped out of it before I could fully fall asleep, though.**_

_** Her lips.**_

**_ My eyes widened. _****She's kissing me****_…I didn't know how to react. It wasn't a peck on the cheek, far from it, her lips were fully sealed on mine. But if I pushed her away, I was afraid she wouldn't be able to handle it. Her family was overly strict, wanted the best from her, and it was probable that they'd kill her if they found out she wasn't straight. Literally. I didn't want to top off her overly stressed out life with the fact that her best friend had pushed her away._**

_** "Sammy…please," I murmured against her lips, grabbing a fistful of hair and trying to pull her away as gently as I could.**_

_** "No."**_

**_ I panicked. What if someone saw us? More importantly, _****her****_? Her family being as successful as it was, there was a great number of people who knew her as 'that family's daughter'. Word would get around faster than a wildfire's flames could spread. I had to stop before this got out of hand. "Sammy. Stop it," I said firmly, tugging on her hair more harshly. "I can't do this."_**

_** "Why not?" She inquired, her voice so quiet seemed like a whisper carried by the wind. She pulled back and I saw tears in her eyes. "You hate me now, don't you? You probably think I'm disgusting."**_

**_ "Sammy…" Was I disgusted? A bit. I wouldn't want to get kissed by a girl, but this was a friend. Do I hate her? Of course not. I already knew she preferred women over men, but I never thought it was me she was fond of. "I don't hate you. Please look at me, Sammy." Reluctantly, she showed me her face. Endless tears were streaming down her face. I reached out and wiped one away, but she flinched as if scared. "I don't…," a panicky feeling started crawling up my throat, making me hesitate. _****Tell the damn truth****_, I told myself. _****No good will come out of this if you don't tell the truth****_. I propped myself up on my elbows. "I'm afraid I can't return your feelings."_**

_** Silence.**_

_** "Oh."**_

_** "Sammy—"**_

_** "Don't worry, Alexia," she quickly interrupted. "I understand. I guess knowing that I love you as more than a friend is too much for you." She got to her feet and began to run away, but I recovered from what she'd said faster and caught up to her, pulling on her arm and making her face me.**_

_** "Sammy, I don't care what you regard me as, I still want to spend time with you."**_

_** "As friends? No way," Sammy said bitterly, wrenching herself out of my grasp. "Things can't go back to normal. I fucking kissed you, Alexia! If you think that that didn't mean anything you're dead wrong." There was nothing to say, since it was all true. She didn't even give a parting word as she ran away, back to class.**_

_** Gathering both of our things, I made my way back to class as well. I saw her seated at the back of the class, looking like she was handling the situation a lot better than I would've expected. But when I looked more closely I could clearly see the red around her eyes and the way she was fiddling with her hands. Slowly, I walked over her and set her things down on her desk. "You forgot them," I half muttered.**_

_** "I hate you."**_

**_ I resisted my urge to scoff. _****That's how easy it is to reject your best friend,****_ I thought._**** Just another case of karma****_._**

_** At home, I couldn't stop thinking of how she could be acting in front of her parents. Fidgety, clumsy, blank, it was a bit difficult to decide with her. She had major mood swings—I jumped as my iPod ringed. My eyes widened as I saw the caller ID.**_

**Sammy Deida Argure would like to FaceTime****_, the screen flashed._**

_** I could've broken my iPod in half with the force I used to press the 'accept' button.**_

_** "S-sammy?"**_

_** I heard a sniff. "Uh-huh." She broke down into sobs. I was silent for a few moments, surprised and elated that she had decided to still talk to me after what happened.**_

_** "What happened, Sammy? Are you alright?" I panicked as her sobbing continued.**_

_** "No…I can't take it anymore, Alexia! Stupid Audrey, she…," I didn't hear the rest of her sentence as she started crying again. Her camera wasn't active, I didn't know what she was doing right now or looked like. All I knew: I am going to kill Audrey, even if she's Sammy's sister.**_

_** "What the hell did she do!? Sammy!"**_

_** "I'm sorry, Alexia. I forced you to give me an answer, and I got too mad when you gave me one. I'm so damn selfish. I should've just…" I heard a pause. "Do you remember those really strong painkillers that—"**_

_** I was out the door in a matter of seconds.**_

_** Her house was about half a mile away. My shoes weren't necessarily for running, but with my friend's life on the line I was there in about three minutes. There were a few close calls at some intersections with hectic traffic; I made it there, regardless. I opened the front door with the key of her house she'd given me at the beginning of eighth grade to commemorate our first year as friends.**_

_** "Hey! What're you doing here?" Sammy's ten-year-old sister, Audrey, asked in a nasty and disrespectful manner. I sent her a death glare that made her back away as I stormed up the stairs to Sammy's bedroom.**_

_** "Sammy?" I asked breathlessly as I slammed her door open. Panting heavily, I scanned the room. Her bed was completely bare, closet was neatly organized and overall, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Even her life-size China dolls were—**_

**Wait****_._**

_** "Oh god," I whispered, walking up to her dolls. One of them looked like a female version of Ulquiorra, except that the doll had normal eyebrows, no hollow mask, no tear streaks, violet eyes and less pale skin. Next to that was one that had curly brown hair, peach skin, gray eyes and bangs going over one of its eyes.**_

_** The last one was the most impressive. Sea-green eyes, hazel skin, golden hair; but its eyes were tired, skin red beneath the eyes, its hair clumped and messy.**_

_** "Sammy." Tears sprang up to my eyes, not believing the scene in front of me. I grabbed her and hugged the daylight out of her, smelling her scent…vanilla.**_

_** "I feel really sleepy," Sammy murmured, attempting to hug me back but not having the strength to. "Please…put me on the bed." I slung her over my shoulder and laid her down on her queen sized bed, then taking a seat met to her.**_

_** "Why did you do this?" I asked in disbelief. She always seemed so strong-willed, I never gave a second thought about her doing something like this.**_

_** "I guess…," she started, "it was just too much for me. Everything." She chuckled a bit. "When I told my parents, they looked at me like I was a freak. I didn't care. I'm just glad I told them, but then Audrey…," she hesitated for a moment. "We started arguing. She said it was unnatural for me to like girls, and well, you know how much I hate it when people say that kind of stuff." I nodded. "I told her that I didn't give a crap about what she thought of my preferences. But…she saw me. When I kissed you. And she threatened to tell my parents that I kissed you of all people. I told her I didn't care." Her expression turned even more melancholic, if possible. "I remember her exact words. 'I guess you don't care if you kissed your friend or a bitch off of the streets, you stupid, selfish whore'." Her voice cracked a bit at the end. I hugged her again, wanting to kill her sister in the most slow and painful way possible.**_

_** "I'm going to kill her," I muttered into Sammy's ear. "I…I should've just beat the bloody daylights out of her when I saw her damn face."**_

_** "I'm sorry…," she said, her grip on me tightening while she started having a coughing fit. I let her fall onto the bed and ran downstairs, looking for a phone.**_

**Damn it**_**, I thought. They only have their cell phones. I didn't have a phone, and Sammy had lost hers a week ago. There was no chance I'd ask her parents or her bitch of a sister for a cell phone. And knowing them, they'd say, 'No, she can go rot in hell for doing that to us.'**_

_** Then I saw one, on their dining room table. I ran over and dialed 911. "Hello, please explain your situation and location," a man's voice answered the call.**_

_** "Location is 2835 north 44th avenue, London. My friend…" I choked back a sob. "She overdosed on painkillers and her condition seems bad." My blood turned cold as I heard Sammy cough. It also seemed that she was sputtering something out.**_

**_ "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" Anger boiled through my veins. _****Can't you people do anything right?**

_** "Fuck you," I spat into the cell and ended the call, running back upstairs. **_

_** "Ale—" I heard Sammy say before coughing again. I saw her bed, now covered in vomit. My heart stopped when I saw that her vomit was mixed with blood. A lot more than normal. Sammy was clutching her pillow to her chest, taking shallow breaths. I ran over to her, putting my hand to her forehead. She didn't have a fever at all, but her teeth were chattering. "I f-feel s-s-sleepy." Her eyes were drooping, the clutch on her pillow decreasing. Despite her bed being covered with blood and regurgitated food, I climbed onto it and held her in my arms, sobbing. "D-don't c-cry, Alexia…" she murmured.**_

_** "Sammy…" I was at a loss for words. I panicked; she wasn't saying anything, and I couldn't feel her breathing. I looked at her face, hoping to see some sort of sign that she was still okay.**_

_** Her pupils were abnormally dilated. I put my hand in front of her parted lips to feel her breath, then pressed my ear to her chest…**_

_** Nothing.**_

_** "Damn it." If she wasn't dead, I'd have her choking with the hold I had on her right now. Her skin felt colder than ice. I was in a trance; not knowing what to do with Sammy, I closed her eyes and set her down on her bed, arms crossed on her chest.**_

_** As if it was some sort of illusion, her image changed. Her spiky chin-length blond hair grew darker and longer, up to her shoulders. Her skin grew pale; two teal streaks going from both of her eyes down to her chin appeared. Her top lip turned black and the other was white as her face. Her feminine body seemed to lose its curves and breast. The hands folded across her chest also turned white, the nails painted black. She turned her head in my direction and opened her eyes, staring straight into my soul. She didn't have eyes, they were dark and endless voids. I realized that it wasn't Sammy anymore.**_

_** It was Ulquiorra Schiffer.**_

**DAY ONE, PART ONE**

I jolted awake, my head bumping into something extremely hard, making me fall back and clutch my forehead. "Shit," I hissed. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room, I realized what I'd bumped into. "What the hell!?"

"It ain't my fault you decided to wake up like that!" Grimmjow hollered back. He was rubbing his forehead as well. "Do you have bricks instead of a damn brain or something?"

"I could ask you the same thing," I shot at him. I took in our position. I was laying in the middle of the bed, him on top of me as if trying to trap me there. "Why the hell are you on my bed?"

"I, uh, was going to wake you up, what did you think?" Then he realized what it looked like he was doing and immediately got off of the bed. "Er…," he murmured, blushing.

"So," I said, yawning. "You were going to wake me up?"

"Yeah."

"Then I'm going back to sleep."

"…Wait, wait, wait!" Grimmjow rushed forward and gripped the blanket covering me before I could pull it over my head. "You have shit to do, and I don't wanna wait for your sorry ass to be in the mood to do stuff."

I gave him a death glare. "It's not like we don't have all day," I muttered, successfully pulling the covers over my head.

"We don't," Grimmjow told me, lifting the covers and peeking at me. He must've gotten scared at my expression, he immediately let go of the covers once I stared murderously at him.

Alright, so maybe I wasn't a morning person.

…Take out the 'maybe.'

"Five more minutes…" I said, falling back into slumber.

"No way," Grimmjow remarked, grabbing my right arm and pulling me into a sitting position. On instinct (and the fact that I really wanted to sleep) I swung my left hand blindly.

**Slap!**

It echoed around the room. My blood went cold, seeing Grimmjow's head snap to the side, a red mark on his right cheek. He let go of me instantly; I crawled back cautiously. I could feel something building up inside me, though I didn't know exactly what it was. Grimmjow turned his head and gave me a look that said, 'you're going to be sorry you did that.' I couldn't take it anymore…

I burst out laughing.

I laughed even more when Grimmjow's face got red with anger, completely contrasting with his hair. Everything seemed way too predictable and epic. The dramatic way he turned his head, the whole gist of the moment was hysterical.

"Oh god…," I panted between spasms of laughter. "I'm so sorry—haha! Even though that was an accident…it was worth it. That was priceless!"

"You know what else is priceless?" Grimmjow growled, pinning me down on the bed by my shoulders. "The mess I'll make when I kill you."

My laughter wore away; now I was staring into his cerulean eyes and smirking, daring him to do what he'd said. "Really?" I asked skeptically. "You? Kill me?" I traced my index finger from the middle of his forehead to his nose, flicking my finger off at the end of his nose. His anger was gone, now replaced with embarrassment of what I was doing, although to me it wasn't a big deal. "Don't forget, I know your weakness."

"What?" he asked, then seemed to remember yesterday and before I could tickle his sides he put both of my hands above my head, making sure I couldn't do anything to him.

"Well, now you've made this boring _and_ provocative," I remarked, sticking my tongue out. My struggle against his arms lessened, giving him the message that I wasn't going to fight him. "What exactly was so important that I had to do today?"

"Well, you were supposed to go take care of Ulquiorra, but before—"

"Holy shit!" I cursed, throwing Grimmjow's weight off of me, making him fall off the bed with a loud thump. I hastily got out of bed, grabbed my clothes and ran into the bathroom connected to my room. _How could I fucking forget?_

"Well, that was fast," Grimmjow said, his voice just outside the door. "I can't believe all it took was the mention of Ulquiorra's name," he taunted, making me blush. I was grateful he couldn't see my expression right now.

"I-i swear, if you open that door—" I started, trying to change the subject.

"I'm not Nnoitora."

"…"

"Alexia?"

"Sorry, I…spaced off," I lied. After showering, putting on my first change of clothes since I got here and brushing out my hair I felt fresh and clean. I came out of the bathroom to see Grimmjow passed out on the couch. I smiled genuinely; I had felt relieved and comforted when Grimmjow told me that he wasn't like Nnoitora. Frowning, I thought of where the bastard could be right now.

"You ready yet?" Grimmjow asked while yawning. His eyes fully opened and took in my appearance: a dark blue t-shirt that fitted my form perfectly, with army-style sweatpants. I was barefoot, an ankle bracelet with the batman logo on my left ankle, the one that had been injured. I used another scrunchie to put my hair in a loose braid that went over my shoulder. With nothing on my feet, the floor felt cold and smooth, like granite.

I noticed that Grimmjow was still looking at me, making me a bit uncomfortable. I put a hand on my hip. "See something you like?" I teased, smirking as Grimmjow blushed and looked away. "Lead the way, Kit-kat." He got up from the couch and cracked his back before going to the door and walked out with me behind him. I got lost in thought as I followed him. About what, you ask?

Absolutely nothing.

In a few minutes we arrived…at the entrance to Szayel's lab. I almost facepalmed myself when I barely remembered about Gin's visit and what he'd told me. I had to go to Szayel's lab first. It appeared Szayel didn't want to get any information on us today, he personally greeted us at the door.

"Are you feeling better, Alexia?" Szayel asked me.

"Yes," I replied. "I was able to recover overnight…" Then I remembered the dream and felt a bit unsure of myself. If I had recovered, then why was I dreaming about Ulquiorra dying? Not only that, but in the same way my friend had, to top it off.

"Well, anyways," Szayel started, "There's actually quite a bit you need to know before you can start taking care of Ulquiorra." He took out a package of about 80 papers (a guess, of course) and handed them over to me. I stared a while at the excessive amount of paper. _Ulquiorra must be a handful_, I thought. "It would literally take a day to explain everything verbally, so I just put everything in text for you to refer to."

"Thank you," I said, although it came out sounding like a question.

"We should get going," Grimmjow said, starting to walk away. I quickly bid Szayel farewell and followed him.

"Ah, Alexia!" Szayel called out before we could turn a corner into one of the many hallways. I glanced at Grimmjow and then walked over. He stayed back, waiting for me. "I almost forgot," Szayel murmured, as if not wanting Grimmjow to overhear even though he was more than twenty feet away. He handed me a vial with a clear neon pink liquid and a bottle with pills no bigger than an uncooked grain of rice. "Give him three drops of these every day; the best way would be to put them in his drink. He'll also take four of these pills before he eats. He may not want to, so you'll have to find a way to convince him to take them."

He's more stubborn than I thought.

"Thank you, Szayel." I was a bit unsure of myself, wondering what could happen if things went wrong.

"Don't feel unsure of yourself," Szayel said; I wondered if there was some sort of pill that could make you read minds. "I'm 96.47% positive that you'll do fine."

"So…you're 3.53% positive that I'm going to fail?" I asked.

"Quite the pessimist, aren't you?" Szayel remarked, chuckling. "Well, you should get going, a certain blue-headed warden is waiting for you."

I looked over my shoulder at Grimmjow, who was glaring at us. More specifically, me. "Well, I'll see you later," I said, walking away and waving.

"You will," Szayel said, waving back. For a moment that almost sounded like an omen, but I brushed it off, thinking about the current situation.

"Took you long enough," Grimmjow muttered as I caught up to him and he started walking again. The hallways seemed to get darker as we ventured further, giving off the impression that Las Noches could look like a prison if it wanted to.

After about ten excruciating minutes of silence and darkness, we arrived at what looked like where all the espadas' rooms were, like a vicinity. We walked down the long hall. Looking at the doors, I saw that they were numbered, with a symbol below them. At ten, there was something that resembled a lizard, or maybe a dinosaur.

Yammy.

At nine was…something. Goddamnit, it reminded me of a fucking overweight jellyfish. Eight had a butterfly of sorts, or maybe a dragonfly. Seven had a pumpkin with a heart engraved on it; I had to restrain my laughter to coughing while Grimmjow gave me a weird look. He slowed down when we walked past his.

"This's your room, right?" I asked. Below the six was a panther that looked just like Grimmjow's adjuchas form.

He hesitated before answering. "Pretty much." I could sense that something was off about him, but figured that it could wait. My pace, as well as his, sped up while walking past Nnoitora's room. _Probably just a fucking mantis_, I told myself. We finally reached Ulquiorra's quarters, which had a bat below his number. Next to the door was a cart with two plates of food that had those covers restaurants would use to make it seem as if there was some sort of surprise inside.

"I'll be in my room," Grimmjow informed me. "After you're done with him, just come over and knock, then we'll take you back to your room."

"Alright, but…what exactly am I supposed to do?" I saw Grimmjow contemplating whether or not to facepalm himself. "I've never done this before, you know."

"Same thing he does with you, I guess. Come in, give him his food, tell him something and get out."

"You make it seem really easy," I mumbled.

"It is easy."

"Yeah, but…," I murmured, glancing at Ulquiorra's door.

"It's not like he's going to kill you or something," Grimmjow assured. I playfully punched his shoulder…then winced.

"Damn you arrancars and your hierro," I complained, rubbing my hand and trying to soothe the pain. I took a deep breath, then made my way over to the cart and pushed it past the door and knocked. I didn't hear a sound. I knocked a bit louder but there was still no answer. "Ulquiorra?" I hesitantly asked.

"Ulquiorra, answer the fucking door!" Grimmjow shouted, startling me. I heard a cough and without thinking, opened the door. Ulquiorra was sitting on his bed, the bed's covers down almost beyond his hips.

He was completely naked.

"Crap!" I shut the door loudly, panting heavily with a face about as red as a ripe tomato. I covered my face with my hands, hoping desperately that my blush would fade away. I leaned against the wall and slid down, covering my head in my knees.

"The fuck's wrong with you?" Grimmjow questioned me before taking a look inside. As quickly as his head peeked in, it popped back out, a scowl now replacing his confusion. "This fucker," he muttered, going back inside and slamming the door shut. I heard muffled shouts and a thumping sound coming from the other side of the door and a few minutes later Grimmjow came back out. "You can go in now," Grimmjow told me in a bitter tone. I took one last look at him while he walked over to his room and, once again, slammed the door. Shaking my head, I started spacing out, wondering why Grimmjow was so mad at Ulquiorra. I mean, I didn't see anything beyond his hips…

"Woman." I nearly jumped out of my skin, forgetting why I was here. "Are you not planning to come inside?"

I nodded wordlessly and pushed the cart inside, closing the door gently behind me. Looking over at Ulquiorra (once I got over the initial embarrassment) I saw that he now had the top part of his clothes on, though I didn't know if he'd put on the bottom as well.

_And I'm sure as hell not going to find out._

I noticed that Ulquiorra was staring at me intently as I uncovered the two plates of food. They were the same as the food that I ate; as before, I couldn't exactly tell what it was. Taking out the vial and the pills, I unscrewed the cap on the vial and was about to put in three drops when Ulquiorra interrupted.

"What are you doing?"

"I, well, Szayel said that I needed to put these in your drink in order for you get well sooner," I explained, not looking at his face that I could still feel staring at me. Gulping, I took my time in making sure I didn't insert too little or too much of the pink liquid into the his drink. I was starting to feel uncomfortable; Ulquiorra had absolutely no reason to stare at me so intently. "Um…why are you staring at me like that?"

"I do not know what you are speaking of, woman. How exactly am I looking at you?"

"Well…er, you're looking at me as if…there's something wrong with my appearance," I tried to explain.

"There is nothing wrong with your appearance."

_Damn it, how can he say it so calmly yet make me blush so goddamn much!?_ I cried out in my head. I had almost spilled all of the vial's liquid into Ulquiorra's drink. "O-ok," I murmured. This all felt awkward; it was like when you bumped into a friend you hadn't seen in a year, and had absolutely nothing to talk about.

Silence grew dominant once again as I opened the bottle of pills and dropped four into my hand. I walked over to Ulquiorra and handed them to him, reminding myself that all I was doing was making contact with his hand and it wasn't a big deal.

_Yeah right, _I groaned in my head. I almost gave in to the urge to grab his hand and press it against my cheek…goddamnit. Ulquiorra stared at the pills, then back at me, and back at the pills.

He handed them back.

"What're you doing? These are for you, not me," I told him.

"That is obvious." I scoffed.

"Then why'd you give them back to me?" I asked, handing them back. This time, he didn't give them to me.

"I do not need medications in order to recover from my…condition," he explained. _Arrogant_, I noted. "Nor do I need to eat anything; we are hollows, there is no need to eat. If anything, eating is a sign that hollows are becoming more human." I wondered why Ulquiorra was suddenly chatty…and it seemed he was voicing his opinion and not just telling facts.

"Well, you need to eat anyways," I said. "Don't you get hungry?"

"No."

"Oh, come on," I prodded. "You've never once looked at human food and thought that you really wanted to eat it?"

"Never."

"Really? At all?"

"If you are trying to make me hungry in any way it is not working."

"Fine," I gave up, sighing. Walking over to the cart and getting his food, I set the plate on the bed.

The food looked somewhat like ham or steak, or a mix of both. On the side were small squares of what looked like gelatin, all different colors and shapes. They weren't exactly tasty, but they didn't kill me so I managed to get used to them in the first few days here.

_Maybe Ulquiorra doesn't like eating because the food's horrible,_ I contemplated.

"I am not eating, woman," he told me.

"Well, you have to." I handed him his drink.

"As I said before, I am not hungry and will not be no matter what you say."

We both stopped talking once I heard a stomach growling.

"Pfft!" I bursted out laughing, fueled by Ulquiorra's shocked expression.

"What was that?" He asked, placing a hand on his stomach.

"Ulquiorra, your stomach just growled," I said once I had stopped laughing. "It's a sign that you're hungry. Just eat some of the food and it'll go away, ok?"

He seemed to be having an inner war in his head, questioning if he should eat and not have to worry about his stomach talking to him, or not act like a human and starve. I took advantage of the opportunity and quickly scooped up some of the food with a spoon and held it up to his mouth.

"Just a little, ok?" I prodded.

"No."

"Ulquiorra, come on!"

"I said, 'no—" I shoved the food into his mouth while he spoke. I winced inwardly a bit as he almost gagged, then reluctantly started chewing and swallowed. I took the spoon out of his mouth and he started coughing uncontrollably, putting a hand on his throat, eyes screwed shut. After a few minutes he stopped, panting with a bit of sweat on his face.

"Ulquiorra, are you ok? It was just food, I didn't shove it into your mouth too hard, did I?" I panicked. What if I've made his emotions go haywire again? Seeing him sway, I put a hand on his forehead, checking to see if he had a fever. I was shocked at the outer temperature of his body; _He's burning_, I thought. "I'm so sorry, Ulquiorra," I apologized, grabbing him by his shoulders and setting him down. I grabbed the plate of food and put it back on the cart, along with his drink. I saw another door and assumed that it was the bathroom; I opened it and went in, wet a towel and folded it.

"What are you doing?"

Ignoring him, I put the towel on his forehead. I managed to fit it under his mask, being careful not to touch it. "This should help," I told him while going over to the table across the room and pulling a chair up next to his bed and plopped myself down on it. "I really didn't mean for this to happen." I looked at him out of the corner of my eyes, not able to face him after what I'd just made him go through.

"Had I not taken those pills, my condition would be at its worst right now," Ulquiorra replied, confusing me. "The pills you gave me suppress my spiritual pressure, making it difficult for the other to show up often. I am at my weakest right now," he told me, his voice tinged with a bit of bitterness, "which is an advantage for him." I knew without asking who he was talking about. What I was confused about now was why he was acting more emotional all of a sudden. "Those pills have side effects, though. I tend to act more human and obtain the vulnerability to diseases. I also act out of character." Well it was official: everybody in Las Noches could read minds.

"…I can tell. I mean, you're not acting extremely emotional, but you have let your thoughts and reactions loose," I said. "But what I was wondering was when you took those pills."

"Before you force-fed me."

_Gee, thanks for reminding me._

"And you didn't drink anything with them?" He shook his head. "Didn't they taste bad?"

"A bit. It was not to the point could not handle it, though, so I felt that there was not a need to drink or eat anything along with it." He seemed to be back to normal, despite his chattiness.

"And yet, your stomach growled," I remarked, smirking.

"I suppose it did."

" 'I suppose it did', my ass," I said. It was strange, cursing in front of him. "You, Ulqui-cielago Schiffer, were hungry. It didn't just do that on its own."

He stared at me. "You seem to be extremely comfortable in my company," he noted. I almost blushed, then realized it really wasn't anything worth blushing for._ He was just observing_, I thought.

"I am comfortable. As I said before, I'm glad I have you to talk to." I started fidgeting with my hands, remembering what had happened after I'd told him that the last time.

"Are you wondering what had happened to me after you'd said that?"

"Yes," I admitted, sighing. I couldn't keep it in anymore. I felt like I was barricading myself from Ulquiorra without knowing. "Are you comfortable explaining it to me?" I asked.

"No."

"…Do you think you'll ever be able to tell me?"

"Probably not," he informed me. I sighed, thinking,_ I'd kill to find a way to make him open up to me._ "I will ask you something."

"I love how you don't ask if you can ask me a question or not."

"What is love?"

My eyes widened, snapping my head in his direction. "W-why do you ask?"

"I am curious," he replied.

"Well, I can try to explain, but…er, what do you know about love?"

"Absolutely nothing," he deadpanned.

I sighed. "It might take a while," I warned him.

"I have more than enough time to listen."

_Crap_. What was I supposed to tell him? '_Oh, love is just when some fictional character you've been obsessed with is suddenly real and you're going through living hell because you know they won't accept your feelings'?_

Actually, that was pretty good. But he wouldn't understand.

"Um, I guess you could say that there are different levels of love," I started. "Regardless, you have a need to make the person you care about happy of comfortable. They also want that for you. It hurts to see them going through pain. If it's family members, depending on what terms you're on with your family, that pain can become unbearable. With friends…," I spaced off a bit, remembering Sammy. I realized that besides my thoughts wandering off, I was starting to tear up. Turning away, I wiped away the half-formed tears. "Well, it also depends on how close you were with them. But I think the worst kind of pain is with the person you truly love."

_Jesus Christ, Alexia, you sound so damn cheesy._

"Some people, when the person they love dies, they can't bear it and kill themselves. Other people go insane. Most people, in time, get over it; there are even some people who go and marry someone else."

"Explain what the love you are talking about at the moment is like," Ulquiorra interrupted. I glared at him.

"Bossy."

"I am simply asking."

"I know, I know. Ok, so…this kind of love is like…you can't live without that person. It's almost like they own part of your soul. You can't stop thinking about them and are always worrying about their well-being. You're fond of almost everything about them and would be able to share your lives together without ever thinking, 'why do I have to meet him/her again' or, 'I can't wait to get away from him/her'."

"I see. You were saying something about people getting married after the person they used to love dies. What does 'getting married' mean?"

"It's when two people decide they will go through a ritual of sorts to symbolize that they're officially going to spend their lives together."

"Ah."

"So, does it make a little more sense now?" I asked.

"Not at all."

My eye twitched in anger. "You're telling me I just explained all that and nothing sank in?"

"Exactly," he replied.

"Well, I tried my best. I've never really been in love with…a human before," I said, altering my phrase so that it would be technically true. "So I don't know too much about being in a relationship or anything like that."

"What do consider me as?" My blood went cold. What was I going to tell him? "Woman, I asked you a question," he said after I didn't answer him right away.

"I…well, to me, you're, well…," I mumbled. One of my faults was that I'd start saying the word 'well' a lot when I didn't know how to explain something or couldn't because I was afraid of what the outcome would be. When I'd gotten angry at Ulquiorra yesterday, I had started my sentences with 'and' a lot. _I really need to get it together,_ I thought, sighing loudly.

But I still didn't know what to say.

"Are you not able to express yourself clearly enough in a way I'd understand?" he suggested. I nodded wordlessly. _Better than telling him how I really feel_, I thought, a bit disappointed in myself. I knew that if I wanted to I could tell him straight out that I had been obsessed with him for the past two years.

And still am.

"Ulquiorra, do you have an idea what a heart is?" I asked him.

"I understand that I do not have a physical embodiment of one, yet am still alive." I looked at him, then his hollow hole; his jacket (whatever it was) hadn't been zipped up all the way, exposing it and also some of his perfect, pale chest. I could almost see the number four to the left of his hole. Before I knew what I was doing, I was sitting on the bed, tugging the fabric of his jacket aside to see his rank. His eyes widened as I put a finger to it, tracing it. Out eyes locked before I leaned into him, pressing my ear to the skin right next to his hollow hole. "W-what…," Ulquiorra murmured, cutting off his own question as he realized what I was doing. He remained silent and still as I listened.

Silence.

"There's…nothing," I muttered, still not leaning away from him.

"I am literally hollow, woman," he reminded me. "It does not matter whether I have a heart or not."

"I know, but I feel like I've failed you." I gave him some space after realizing I was pretty much laying down on top of him, blushing.

"Do you think it is necessary for me to have one?"

"No," I answered, a bit too quickly. "Well, I don't know what it's like to not have one, but you're fine just the way you are, Ulqui-cielago," I assured him, throwing in his nickname just to calm the awkwardness. "It's not like you're going to act like a completely different person if you have a heart."

"I am a bit envious of all humans," Ulquiorra randomly told me.

"What? Really?" I asked incredulously. "I thought you found us boring and crazy."

"Yes, well…that was before I met you."

_Oh god_, I thought. I couldn't look him in the eye. Does he even know what he's saying? My fucking head's going to explode from all the blood rushing up to it. "W-why are you envious of humans, though? If anything, humans should be envious of arrancars. Your powers are beast."

"I have the powers of a beast?" Ulquiorra inquired, making me give a small laugh.

"What I meant to say is that your powers are awesome and brilliant."

"What I am envious of is your ability to display your emotions so freely," he elaborated. "And yes, I am well aware of what emotions are, even though I do not know what a heart is."

"Oh…I guess that could be something to be envious of," I said. "Does that other person only try to take over when your emotions aren't in check?"

"For the most part. I would not like to talk about it," he told me. I nodded my head in understanding.

"I think I should be going now," I murmured getting up from the bed and carrying the chair back to the table. How long had I been talking with him? It seemed like it had been years. "I'm coming back in a few hours, right?"

"That is correct," he replied. It seemed like the less emotional part of him was starting to become dominant again, and I didn't know whether I should've been glad or disappointed. "Hopefully your next visit will not involve you jabbing a spoon down my throat."

"I did say I was sorry, and I only had to do that because you didn't want to eat," I scolded. "Besides, I didn't give you any more after that. Don't complain."

"I am not complaining."

"Even if you're not, you need to eat." I took a sip of water. "You didn't drink out any of this, did you?"

"I did, actually."

I almost choked on my water. "Y-you did?" I blushed when he nodded. "Where exactly did you…um, put your mouth on?" I handed him the glass so he could look at it.

"The same exact spot you just drank from." _Oh, please kill me now_. "If you are worried about attracting a disease from drinking on that—"

"Oh, trust me, it's not that," I muttered. _Crap, was that an indirect…kiss!?_ I shook my head, trying to clear the thought out of my head. I took a few deep breaths. "Well, um, I'll see you later," I reminded him, making my way over to the door. I was about to open the door when—

**Slam! **The door swung open, hitting me square in the face. "Hey, Alexia! You're wasting too much damn—the hell happened to you?" Grimmjow stupidly asked. I was holding my nose with both hands, trying to cover up the fact that my nose was bleeding. I gave him an are-you-kidding look and realization dawned his face. "Oh."

"Geez, I feel sorry for the doors," I said, my voice sounding nasal. "It's not like I was getting tortured, you could've waited a few more minutes. I was actually on my way out when you decided to burst in."

"Sorry," Grimmjow said, not sounding sorry at all. I started tapping my bare foot in impatience. When he didn't do anything, I burst.

"The least you could fucking do is get my a damn napkin," I snapped at him, stomping over to the cart and finding one myself. "I'll see you later, Ulquiorra."

"I know."

Sighing, I walked out the door, not caring if Grimmjow was behind me as I closed the door. He barely made it out, almost getting squished by the door. "Hey, I said I was sorry."

"Didn't sound like you were sorry," I replied bitterly.

"What do you want me to do? Get on my knees and beg for forgiveness?"

"Although that actually sounds like a good idea—"

"No way!"

"I'd rather you say that you were sorry and sound like it," I explained.

"…I'm sorry." It definitely sounded a lot more sincere than before.

"That's more like it," I commented, smiling at him. "Why are we in such a rush now? I don't have anywhere to go for the next few hours."

"Actually, Aizen has something planned for you."

"Really? What does the bastard want now?" I asked.

"You're going to have dinner with the espadas."

Grimmjow: Remind me why I had to be Alexia's warden

Alexia: Aw, come on. It's not like you're not enjoying it

Me: Or would you rather have Nnoitora in your place?

Grimmjow: -.- I guess not…but either way, she's making my life a living hell.

Alexia: ^_^ That's what you're paying me for

Gin: ~.~ Since when were we paying you?

Alexia: T_T Um, since I said so?

Me: Yeah right, it doesn't make sense to pay you for being a bitch

Alexia: Ò.Ó Hey, you're the one making me seem like a bitch!

Me: Eh, true that ^_^ I'm extremely happy this week, I got to my first benchmark of ten reviews!

Grimmjow: She wants to thank **KillingDesire**, **koalakrazykarla88910**, **Bonnie Fritz**, **Irah**, **shadowoftheblackdeat**, **bfa123**, and that one anonymous person who've decided to leave reviews

Me: For those people that reviewed, Grimmjow would like to give you all hugs!

Grimmjow: Crap T_T It was bad enough when Alexia hugged me, she almost ripped my vest in half while doing so…

Alexia: -.- It was the spur of the moment

Grimmjow: Do I—

Me: Yes, you do T_T

KillingDesire: x.x Please

Grimmjow: Ok…(Hugs) Hey, he doesn't wanna let go!

Alexia: Well, we'll see you in the next chapter!

Me: Bye!

Grimmjow: O.O Wait, are you just going to leave me like this!?

KillingDesire: I don't mind at all ^_^

Gin: See ya later!


	5. The inevitable

Me: I just noticed…my rants are starting to drag T_T

Alexia: No shit, Sherlock

Ulquiorra: That _is_ a bit hard to believe

Me: -.-' Sorry about that

Alexia: You know how you can make it up to us and your readers who hate long rants?

Me: I'm sorta scared to ask O.o

Alexia: You can cut this rant off and get to the next chapter T_T

Me: •-• I like rants, though

Ulquiorra: I agree with Alexia

Me: T_T Fine (smirks)

Alexia: Oh, by the way—

**DAY ONE, PART TWO**

After about ten minutes of me asking questions and forcing Grimmjow to answer, I got the kinks of what was going to happen at the 'espadas dinner.'

Go there. Eat. Talk. Argue. Eat some more. And let's not forget that Aizen decided it was the perfect time to have a meeting as well.

"You know, everything sounded fun until you mentioned Aizen," I remarked, arriving back at my room. Sighing, I swung the door open and plopped myself down on the couch, crossing my ankles. Grimmjow hesitated before also coming inside and shutting the door. "All of the espadas will be there, right?"

"Well, Ulquiorra's not going, of course," Grimmjow reminded me. "But everyone else, yeah."

"Speaking of food, you didn't give me anything to eat for breakfast," I scolded him. I was fighting my stomach, subconsciously telling it not to growl. As bad as the food tasted, it cured my appetite.

"That's cause you're going to fill your stomach up to the brim with all the shit that's going to be at our dinner," Grimmjow explained. "I don't know why the hell there's so much food."

"Is it different from the food I've been eating?" I asked.

"You wouldn't believe." I smiled when I saw him almost start drooling, but snapped out of his trance at the last second. "You'd never guess who the cook is."

"You wanna bet?" I inquired mischievously, smirking. "If I don't guess who's our cook in four guesses, I have to obey everything you want and demand from me for an hour." I knew it might be extreme, but I felt like taking risks today.

_And yesterday_, I reminded myself. _And the day before that_.

"Your funeral," Grimmjow warned me, also smirking. "If you guess who it is, the same'll go for me."

"Fine." I closed my eyes, going into deep thought. The first thing I did was cross off the people who were most likely not going to do it. Barragan. Lilinette. Aaroniero. Maybe…Yammy. It was hard to imagine him in a chef's apron and hat. Ulquiorra wouldn't be there, so I'd have to count him out as well.

Now for the fracciòn, I thought. I used the same method as before. Um...Edrad, Nakim, Abirama, Choe Neng Poww, Nirgge. Which left a shitload of people to choose from.

"Taking it pretty seriously, are you?" Grimmjow teased. I glared at him while he stared at me, amusement in his eyes.

"You."

"What?" Grimmjow asked.

"Are you the cook?" I repeated more clearly.

"Hell no," he replied, scowling. "I'm not going to make food for other people. If I cook, it'll be only for myself."

"Go figure."

"You have three more chances," Grimmjow reminded me.

"I _do_ know how to count…how about Halibel?" I suggested. A feeling of dread washed over me when I saw Grimmjow raise an eyebrow at me.

"Two more." _Crap_.

"Gin," I said, changing up the categories. I was getting desperate now, fearing what Grimmjow would do if he won the bet. I swear, if he says that he's going to throw paint at me for the next hour I'll kill myself.

"Ugh, no. He already tried once…it didn't end well."

I didn't ask.

"One more, right?" I asked for confirmation.

"Yeah, but you might as well give up," Grimmjow remarked.

"Shut it." I took a deep breath. _Ah, fuck it, _I told myself. "What about…your fracciòn?"

"Which one?" he asked.

"All of them." It was a completely random guess, but I'd gotten some hope when he'd asked 'which one' of his fracciòn I was talking about. Maybe…

"You lose."

My life's over.

"So…what do you want me to do first?" I asked politely, albeit with bitter edge to it. "King Jaegerjaeques."

"Heh, that actually has a nice ring to it," Grimmjow arrogantly commented. "But I don't want to use my hour just yet."

"I never said you could choose when to waste your hour," I informed him.

"Ya never said I couldn't."

"…You're getting better at this."

"And you're getting worse." I was starting to get angry at him for getting carried away. "Nothing to say?"

"No," I replied coldly. "Actually, if you're not going to use your hour I'll just go ahead and tell you to get the hell out." I stood up and pushed him over to the door. He wasn't showing any signs of hesitation, though. "I need to rest." A drowsy feeling was starting to wash over me.

"Oh, wow," Grimmjow muttered, "are you really that sensitive?"

"It's not that…I just…" I murmured between yawns. My eyesight was beginning to get blurry, and my sense of space began to disfunction. I stumbled and fell, but was caught by a pair of strong, muscular arms.

"Hey, what the hell's with you?" Grimmjow asked, concerned.

"Mmm," I hummed, falling asleep in his embrace. Somehow I managed to gain my focus and convinced myself to not fall asleep at the last moment. "Sorry, I just felt really sleepy all of a sudden." An awkward moment presented itself when I regained my footing; he was still grabbing me by my arms, and my face was practically an inch away from beng pressed into his upper chest. "You can let go of me now."

"Oh, yeah," Grimmjow said, letting go and taking a step back. I yawned loudly, rubbing my eyes. Then I turned towards the bed, took a step and fell again. This time no one caught me, making me give a small yelp as I hit the floor. "Ok, _really_?" he asked skeptically.

"I don't know what's wrong, I just—hey, let go of me," I muttered sleepily as Grimmjow hauled me up and carried me over to the bed, throwing me down on it. The softness of the covers seemed to lull me to sleep, like the sirens from Greek mythology.

"Lazy ass," I heard Grimmjow tease before I fell into slumber.

**ONE HOUR LATER**

"Hey, wake up! We're gonna be late!" Grimmjow's voice rang through my ears, making me jolt awake. I lazily got off of bed and went straight to the bathroom, looking in the mirror to check my appearance. The coldness of the floor helped wake me up, making me walk a bit faster. _Holy crap_, I thought. _My hair's such a fucking mess_. I was almost scared to brush it. "Can you get ready any slower?"

"Shut up," I snapped, hesitantly getting a comb and attempting to brush out my hair. Sighing loudly, I gave up after a few pulls, tugs and yanks; none of my hair had managed to get untangled. "Grimmjow, come help me with this…"

"With what?" he asked, opening the door to the bathroom, eyes widening once he saw the endless clumps of hair on my head. "Did a bird decide to make its nest on your head or something?" he barked out, laughing his ass off.

"Fuck you," I spat at him, handing him the comb. He tentatively reached out and brushed one spot. He only made that part of my hair more tangled than it already was. I scowled, snatching the brush away from him; I'd never had much patience when it came to my hair, but my hair never usually gave me any problems.

Usually.

"Just let me try," Grimmjow suggested. I hesitated for a second before handing him the brush again. This time I could feel how gentle he was being, starting at the ends of my hair and working his way up.

"For a guy, you're pretty good at this. Do you brush your hair when in your resurrección form?" I teased, looking at him out of the corner of my eyes. A blush spread out over his face. "Am I right?"

"Of course not! I just…I don't know, but I feel like I've done this before," he tried to explain, although I wasn't completely convinced. "What? Don't look at me like that, I'm tellin' ya the truth."

"Unless you're amnesic, I don't fully believe you," I told him. I sighed contentedly once he finished. I took the brush back and threw the fallen hairs into the wastebasket. "I'll be ready in five minutes."

"Alright," Grimmjow said, walking out of the bathroom and leaving the door open. I used the comb to part my hair down the middle, then took part of my hair and switched it over to the left, making it drape over my forehead and part of my left eye. After walking out of the bathroom I put on a pair of pure black sandals so as to not be completely rude at dinner.

"Ready," I said, walking towards the door. After getting out, he lead the way; but I saw him second guessing himself after a few minutes. "Grimmjow, don't tell me we're lost…"

"…Course not."

_We're lost_, I thought to myself. "Remind me why you don't know your way around here despite the fact that you live here." I looked to my left, then to my right. There were three corridors to go down, each looking exactly the same as the other. Torches were placed on the walls every twenty feet or so. "Just how big is Las Noches?"

"Haven't really explored that much, so I don't know. Maybe…fifty square miles?" he guessed.

"Fifty fucking square miles!?" I exclaimed, eyes widening. Fifty square miles…how big was that? "Forget it, we're gonna starve," I muttered.

Both of us jumped when a small lizard-like hollow came out of the shadows, its head peering over at us before scurrying away; purely by instinct, I ran after it. "Hey, what do you think you're doing!?" Grimmjow called out, using sonido to appear at my side.

"Maybe the lizard knows the way," I suggested, picking up the pace as the lizard sped up and turned a corner.

"How can you be so sure?"

"I don't find it hard to believe that a lizard has better sense of direction than you do."

"…"

"I win," I remarked. The lizard seemed to be getting farther, making me pick up the pace as well. _For a small reptile, this thing's fast as hell_, I thought. I started to panic as I lost sight of it, then spotted it a few seconds later traveling on the ceiling instead of the floor.

"If I use sonido we won't lose sight of it," Grimmjow proposed. "Just, uh, hang on to my arm or something." I did as I was told and gripped his arm. Screwing my eyes shut, the nauseous feeling from last time came back, also making me lose my sense of direction. I came close to tripping as we appeared fifteen feet away from our original spot, the hollow-lizard less than a foot away from us. As it ran away Grimmjow sonidoed again unexpectedly, making me momentarily panic. We reappeared another thirty feet away.

"I don't think this's such a great idea anymore," I murmured, holding on tighter to Grimmjow's arm. I took deep breaths and trying loosening my hold. "I…what's that smell?" My stomach rumbled at the heavenly scent. At first it smelled like barbecue, then it changed to something akin to fruit, followed by spice and herbs. My mouth watered. It smells so much better than the food I have to eat in my room, I thought.

"Damn, it smells even better than the last time," Grimmjow noted. We decided to ditch the follow-the-lizard plan and used our sense of smell to find our way. Before long, we came to a brightly lit hallway with gigantic double doors. Grimmjow pulled on the handle of one of them; the different scents seemed to explode from behind the door, which made me practically run inside. A long table much like the one in the espadas' meeting room was set in the middle, although this one was much longer. All of the espadas were already seated, and their fracciòn were also present.

"So, you've decided to come," Aizen's voice rang out. He was seated at the head of the table, of course, radiating a commanding aura.

"Oh, no, we just decided to watch everyone eat and then leave," I muttered, tapping my foot impatiently. I stalked over to a random chair and plopped down, sighing. "Don't ask questions your already know the answer to."

"Why haven't they served the damn food yet?" Grimmjow asked. "Or were all of you waiting for us? I'm flattered."

"Actually, there are a few problems in the kitchen right now, but they'll be fixed soon enough," Szayel explained matter-of-factly.

"By the smell of things, I thought everything was ready to be served," I said. "What exactly is on the menu?"

"Anything you want," Szayel replied.

"Anything?"

"If we do not have it, which I highly doubt, I can make something for you if you'd like."

"…You're the cook!?" I asked incredulously. _Wait_, I thought. _He_ is_ a scientist, cooking is chemistry…seems legit_. I should've thought of that before. "That does make sense, you being a scientist and all."

I looked at the faces that were present at the table. Stark, Lilinette, Barragan and all his fracciòn, Halibel and hers as well…_Ulquiorra would've been next,_ I thought. Nnoitora wasn't here yet and neither was Tesla. Grimmjow was there (no shit); Zommari, Szayel, Yammy, Aaroniero, Aizen, Gin and Tôsen were here as well. Surprisingly, Menoly and Loly were seated at the end of the table near Aizen. I saw Loly shoot me a death glare which I returned with a blank stare.

Starting with Aizen and going clockwise, we were seated as follows: Aizen, Gin, Loly, Stark, Lilinette, Grimmjow, me, two empty seats, Sun-sun, Apache, Mila Rose, Halibel, Aaroniero, Zommari, Barragan, Poww, Abirama, Charlotte, Nirgge, Findorr, Ggio, Yammy, Shawlong, Szayel, Ilfort, Edorad, D-Roy, Menoly and Tôsen to Aizen's right. All in all, Aizen was at one end, Barragan at the other, Fourteen arrancars (Nakim appeared at the last second and managed to squeeze a chair between D-Roy and Edorad, much to their dismay) and one Soul Reaper to Aizen's right, thirteen arrancars and another Soul Reaper to his left, plus one human: me. I realized with dread that Nnoitora or Tesla would be sitting next to me, and as I thought that…speak of the devil.

"Wouldya look at that, Tesla. There's exactly two seats left," Nnoitora's voice reverberated in my ears as he made his entrance. "And look, it seems that Sunny wants to talk ta ya." I glanced over at Sun-sun, who was glaring at Nnoitora.

"I would advise you to not call me as such, Nnoitora," she informed him calmly. "And I never said that."

"That's Nnoitora-sama to you," he sneered as he walked by her and pulled out the seat next to mine, completely ignoring her last sentence. Tesla sat down next to Sun-sun wordlessly, sparing her a glance of apology that Nnoitora couldn't see. "Long time no see, Lexi. Heard that ya were crying and hysterical after I played with you." He successfully struck a nerve and I snapped back at him, even though I knew he wanted me to.

"The only reason I was crying and hysterical was because of someone I actually give a shit about, Spoon." I grabbed the spoon from the set in front of me on a napkin and waved it in his face, then held it over the flame that came from the small candles that were set on the table. I smirked as the spoon started to melt under the heat and glanced at Nnoitora. He was currently staring at the scene in semi-horror/anger. With my other hand, I pointed at the spoon, then slowly dragged my finger in his direction.

"Why, you—"

"Why? That's pretty obvious," I remarked. Everyone in the room was silent, watching our argument.

"Um, excuse me?" a soft voice asked. I turned my head in the direction on the voice and saw an arrancar, probably one of the servants, that had short blond hair and lime green eyes. Her bangs sloped over her right eye and small pieces of hollow bone were braided into her hair. Something about her appearance nagged at me. "The food is ready to serve."

"Well then, bring it in," Aizen said, all too calmly, making the petite female arrancar panic at his silent impatience. _Guess he's not the only one who's hungry_, I thought.

Ten to fifteen other servants entered the room, carrying multiple plates of food. My curiosity grew as each plate was set on a strip of metal that went around the table. Then all at once, the metal strip started moving counterclockwise, reminding me of the baggage carousels at airports.

"Well then, let us begi—" Aizen was cut off as chatter exploded from all directions and everyone started picking food off of the conveyor belt and onto their plates. I only stared amidst the chaos, not knowing what to do.

"If ya don't take something it's all gonna be gone by the time you decide to snap out of your trance," Grimmjow told me, grabbing a giant bowl of white rice and passing it to me.

"Thanks," I said, scooping some rice onto my plate. I saw Grimmjow raise an eyebrow quizzically when the amount of rice I was getting seemed a bit too much. "What? White rice is some of the best stuff on earth."

"It doesn't even taste like anything."

"Doesn't matter," I mumbled while tasting a bit of the rice. _Dear god, I've almost forgotten what actual food tasted like_, I thought. By coincidence, a plate of orange chicken came by and I hastily grabbed the plate, pushing what was left onto my plate. A few onigiri (rice balls) passed and I took two. A few feet away…holy mother of all shit.

Garlic bread. And there was only one left.

I noticed that Nnoitora was pretty much eye-raping the garlic bread as well. I pretended not to notice until he reached out for it. In one swift movement, I snatched the bread out of the reach of his outstretched hands. But before I could take a bite out of it, Nnoitora's hand shot out and tried to steal it. He didn't manage to take it, though, because…

Well, I was hungry, what did you expect?

"You better hand that shit over," Nnoitora snarled, his hand still gripping the bread as if it was a lifeline.

"You calling garlic bread 'shit' only proves that you're not worthy of eating it," I responded.

"I saw it first."

"I like it more than you do."

"I love it."

"I love it more."

"Your love can go up my—" Nnoitora was cut off as a mystery sword lashed out and cut the bread precisely in half.

"Ne, why don' ya both share?" Gin spoke up. We both turned out heads to find that Gin had used Shinso to split the bread, incredibly close to our fingers. Even though he had his signature ear-to-ear grin, it held a sense of annoyance and a bit of impatience.

"Y-yes, sir," Nnoitora and I stuttered. Glancing over at Nnoitora for a second, I saw a smirk pulling at his lips as he chomped on the bread, making me a bit angry as I bit down on my piece. _Well, at least I didn't have to share the rice_, I thought. Another servant came by, passing out chalices. I noticed that they had countless pitchers with different drinks that they were letting us select on a long cart.

"Um, excuse me?" the same female arrancar with the blond hair said. I turned my head to my right and saw that she was asking Grimmjow, not me.

"What?" Grimmjow said while munching on a piece of lasagna. "Speak up, dammit! I can't hear a word you're saying!"

"I'm sorry," she replied hastily, her tone of voice a bit higher, although not by much. "What would you like to drink?"

"I don't know, just give me something, and it better taste good," he mumbled his reply.

"I'm sorry, sir, I didn't hear what you said." She seemed almost scared to voice her half-complaint.

"Pick whatever the hell you want!" He shouted at her, making the few people who weren't wolfing down food look over at him and the girl. "You're such a dumbass, hurry the fuck up and pick something!"

_Okay, seriously, did Grimmjow have PMS?_

"Y-yes, sir! I'm so sorry," she said, quickly grabbing a pitcher and filling up his chalice. I could see that her hands were shaking as she poured the mystery liquid, also making brief eye contact with me. _Where have I seen those eyes before?_ I racked my head trying to find the answer as she made her way over to me, passing me my chalice.

"Tch, about time." he immediately took a swig of the liquid, then made a sour face and slammed the goblet down on the table. "The fuck is this!?"

"It's…tequila." She held out the pitcher for him to read the label. "You said to pick any…"

"Hey, quit being a bitch, Grimm," I spoke, making him whip his head towards me. "If you think about it, this's all your fault." I interjected before he could talk back. "First of all, you need to be patient with her. Second, you did tell her to pick any random drink. And third…it's not her fault you're such a light drinker," I teased, smirking.

"I'm not a light drinker," Grimmjow argued, his voice also harboring a teasing tone. "But you'd know all about light drinkers, wouldn't you?"

"I, for one, hate alcoholic beverages," I informed him, "because—"

"Because they're too much for you?" Grimmjow prodded, succeeding in fueling my anger.

"You wanna bet?"

"Hey…the girl wants some of that, too," he commanded, nodding his head towards the pitcher and then to me. "Don't bring too much, though, since this battle ain't gonna last that long." He smirked at my glaring face.

"Bring it on," I said, gulping down a bit of the liquid, then making the same face as Grimmjow. "That tasted…worse than I expected."

"Never gonna win if you say that," Grimmjow remarked, gulping the rest of his until his cup hung above his head as he drank every last drop. "Didya give up already?" he made a move to grab my chalice but I took it and held it away from him.

"Hell no," I said while I gulped down the remains in my cup. The tequila, in my opinion, tasted horrible, but there was something in it that made me want more. "Could you leave the pitcher here, please?" I asked the arrancar.

"Of course," her soft voice replacing the panicked and afraid one she'd had with Grimmjow. Her hands weren't shaking as she set the pitcher down between Grimmjow and I; I whispered into her ear as she leaned over to set it down.

"Don't mind the blunette, he's crazy," I said loud enough so that he could hear me, twirling my index finger around my temple to symbolize what I was saying in case he hadn't heard me, grinning once an annoyed look came over his face.

"Hurry up and fill your cup, we haven't even gotten to the second shot yet," he complained. And as George Carlin said:

One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.

Just that we made it up to about six or seven, and we didn't exactly collapse.

"You stuuupid cat," I drawled, poking at Grimmjow's shoulder repeatedly. "I said–_hic_– I win!"

"No…fuckin' way," he replied, seeming to be just about as drunk as I was. "I told ya…it's over nine fuckin' thousssand…"

"The number of tequila shots I consumed is—" I broke into a fit of giggles before continuing "—too…damn high!"

"Wouldya both just leave already?" Nnoitora commanded, fed up with our soberness.

"We'll leave when we fuckin' wanna," Grimmjow and I both managed to say in sync despite our speech abilities. We both burst out laughing when Nnoitora stormed out, Tesla in tow. There was about half of the original party left; Aizen and both of his flank, Menoly and Loly, Szayel, Grimmjow's fracciòn, and (incredibly surprising) Stark and Lilinette.

"Hey, Grimmy," I prodded, playfully punching his shoulder. Either I didn't punch it too hard or I was too drunk to feel the pain from hitting him. "You know…"

"What?" he asked, grinning from ear to ear as his curiosity grew.

"…"

"Don't waste time," he scolded me, making me laugh. "Why the hell are ya laughin'?"

"Time can't be wasted when you're wasted all the time," I recalled another quote from Catherine Zandonella. He looked at me weird, making me scoff and roll my eyes. "You…such a dummy," I said, not making a proper sentence.

"You're mom's a dummy," he responded.

"Mmm, yeah, she was," I agreed, suddenly getting up from my chair and making my way to the doors. I stumbled a few times but managed to keep myself from falling. "I wanna go."

"Yeah, let's," he consented, also getting up and following me. He definitely didn't remember where we were going, because we ended up at a door with the number six and a panther on it. I didn't care any less, opening the door and flopping onto the bed, grabbing a pillow and clutching it to my chest. "Hey, get off my fuckin' bed," Grimmjow commanded.

"Ewww, Kit-Kat!"

"What!" he snapped as he grabbed my ankles and pulled me to the edge of the bed.

"You have a bed specifically for fucking people!?" I asked incredulously. "I'm getting off, alright!" I jumped and went for the couch instead, but was stopped by two arms around my waist.

"I never said I did that," Grimmjow told me, his voice suddenly serious. It almost seemed that our drunken states were starting to fade away already despite the obvious fact that we'd just finished drinking.

"Hey, lemme go," I said.

"…Alexia, I need to talk to you."

" 'Bout what? It can wait til morning…," I argued, wanting nothing more than sleep at the moment.

"It…it can't."

"Grimm—" I was cut off as I was pulled into a bear hug, albeit a more gentle one. I didn't respond, not knowing why he was doing this. "Wha's wrong?"

Hesitating for a moment, he let go of me and looked me in the eyes. I stared back, curious. Then his hand went to my chin, tilting it up to face him. The hold he had on my hips tightened as he leaned down, pressing his lips to mine.

I didn't respond. I couldn't. The hand on my chin went to the back of my neck, pressing my mouth on his forcibly. My hands gripped his jacket; one went up to his hair and I tugged on it, hopefully sending the message that I didn't want to do this, but apparently the wrong one was sent, because the kiss's intensity deepened. Grimmjow turned around and gently set me down on the bed, never cutting off the kiss. My eyes were screwed shut as I felt his tongue run along my bottom lip, asking for entrance. I truly tried to resist, but when the hand that was on my hip lifted my shirt a bit to reveal some of my stomach, I gasped, which made him gain permission. I didn't even know if the emotions I was experiencing were pleasure or repulsive.

"Grimm," I huffed, trying to pull away once again. I felt relief, then dread as he started planting kisses along my jaw and eventually my neck. I shivered. _Stop_.

"Alexia…" he whispered in my ear before licking the shell of it, making me squirm. _Stop now_.

He pulled back. I saw that he was now straddling my hips, eyes clouded with lust. Slowly, he rolled his hips, giving me an idea of how badly he wanted this, starting to take off his jacket at the same time. E.

"No!" I yelped, yanking my arms out and jutting them in front of me, nearly pushing him off the bed. "I…I don't want this."

"If you're acting like this because of what happened with Nnoitora…" he started, coming closer to me until we were inches apart.

"No, it's just…" _Why?_ I didn't know, but it didn't exactly feel right. Add the fact that we were both drunk as fuck and it didn't seem like the right place and time. I'd never given a second thought about my feelings for Grimmjow, but if I thought about it…would we be able to work things out? "Well, I don't think right now is a good time to be doing this," I told him, abandoning any excuses.

"But…," he began, leaning away to give me space and sighing, running a hand through his hair. "What if we weren't drunk bastards right now? What would you have done?" His eyes held desperation, making me feel uncomfortable.

"F-first of all," I said, stammering a bit, "the only bastard is you." The rest of my certainty went out the door when I saw his expression remain the same instead of showing irritation. "Second, this—" I twirled my finger in the air, "—isn't exactly what you would call expected…why did you do this?"

"Isn't it obvious?" he asked.

"Well, I have an idea, but…"

"Listen, I'm not going to force you, but I need to you take what I'm saying seriously," he informed me, and if possible, his expression turned even more serious. "Alexia, I…" I half expected something to happen; just like all the other times, when it seemed that Ulquiorra was going to kiss me, when I nearly got raped by Nnoitora, when my job to take care of Ulquiorra prevented things today (This morning? Hard to tell) from going farther with Grimmjow and his attempts to wake me up. Time froze when nothing prevented his next words. "I think I might be falling in love with you."

_Dear god, what am I supposed to do?!_ I screamed mentally. I've never had this happen, shit, I've never been in a relationship of any sort; hence my indecision of what to tell him. "…How drunk are you?"

_ALEXIA, WHAT THE HELL MADE YOU JUST SAY THAT!?_

"I'm so sorry!" I hastily apologized. A pang of panic surged through me once he looked me in the eye. Somewhere in their depths I saw anger and hurt. "I'm sorry, I really am, I don't know what I was thinking…," I murmured. I tried to get closer to him but he backed away as if I had some sort of contagious disease.

"Well, if you think I'm drunk, then why the hell am I not strangling the shit out of you right now?" he snapped. "Cause that's what I want to do right now, and if I was as drunk as you think, you'd probably be dead right now."

"Why the hell aren't you drunk?" my anger seeped through.

"Why aren't you?"

"Does it look like we're talking about me right now?"

"We are now."

_Crap_.

"Listen…I don't really know what to think of this," I tried to explain. "I mean, all of a sudden, you're saying that you're in love with me? You're a hollow, I'm a human. I've never gave a thought to us being more than friends right now."

"What about later?" he asked, a bit of hope in his tone of voice. "If we…you know, starting having a romantic relationship, what would you think then?"

"Are you suggesting that we start dating?" I questioned skeptically. I sort of felt like I was being pressured into this, not having a chance to tell him that I didn't know if I wanted this.

"If you're not sure, just try it," he suggested, reading my mind. "Just try, at least."

"Well…" _Dammit_, I thought. I felt that if I said yes a giant load of guilt would be lifted off of my shoulders. If I said no, I would feel that load increase and probably would never be able to face him again. But there was still that small feeling of being pressured into this. "I don't know…"

"How about tomorrow?"

"What?"

"An answer," he explained, "by tomorrow. You'll have all night to think about it."

Well, that was comforting. Now I was going to be pressured and drowsy. "Fine," I agreed, getting up from the bed with no real destination in mind. I looked around his room. It looked very much like mine, minus the paint splatters. It also had another door leading to the bathroom, and right next to it was another door. "What's in here?" I asked rhetorically, walking over and turning the knob. Well, well, I thought. I didn't think Grimmjow would have a walk in closet…

With the same damn outfits.

"Oh, that," he said, coming up behind me, making me a bit nervous. He seemed to notice and didn't get too close.

"There's no point to having a closet with the same outfits. If you're going to keep the same clothes somewhere, you should put them—what in the fuck!?" In the far corner of the closet, there was what looked like a life-size replica of Grimmjow, completely naked.

"Shit!" Grimmjow exclaimed, pushing past me and draping it with the first thing that he touched, a bath towel. He turned to face me, a small blush dusting his cheeks."Sorry you had to see that."

"It's not your fault," I responded, a small blush on my face as well. "Was that a gigai?"

"A what?" he inquired, confused. "Szayel made these for us, they're called marionetas."

"Puppets?" I asked for comfirmation, recalling the Spanish I'd learned in high school. "What purpose do they serve?" I already had an idea that it was just the same as a gigai, but I still wanted to make sure.

"Well, I've never used it, but when we go to the human world we're supposed to wear them. They suppress our spiritual pressure so that Soul Reapers can't find us."

"Oh, that's pretty much what the Soul Reapers have, although they're called gigai." I started to back out of the closet, a loud yawn escaping me. "Hey, how many tequila shots did we drink?"

"Too many to count," he remarked. I could almost hear his smirk althought I wasn't facing him.

"I'm being serious, I'm asking 'cause I'm wondering why I'm not acting as drunk as I was a few minutes before."

"Maybe six? Seven? I didn't keep count."

"No shit," I grumbled. "I feel like sleeping…"

"Well then, let's go," he told me, stepping out of the closet and heading over to the door, me following him. This time we didn't have to follow a lizard to find our way, arriving at my room in a few minutes. "So…tomorrow."

"If you keep on reminding me I'm not going to choose anything at all," I warned him, successfully shutting him up about it for the time being. "What're we doing tomorrow…?" I asked, losing my train of thought in the middle of the sentence, my vision becoming blurry.

"Hey, are you ok?" He asked, setting a hand on my shoulder to keep me steady.

"Jus…answer the damn question," I yawned.

"Same thing as today, minus the dinner." _Damn_. "You've been a really lazy ass today, you know. Didn't you already take a nap?"

"Yeah, but…I don't know, I'm just really tired today," I replied. "It'll probably be gone by tomorrow." _And a hangover can settle in right after_, I mentally groaned. "I'll see you, ok? Just, uh, let go of my shoulder."

"R-right," he said, reluctantly letting go. "So, just, uh, think about the—"

"You mention the damn question and I'm going to give you something to ask a question about," I angrily snapped.

"And what would that be?"

"I don't know."

He sighed, closing his eyes and reminding himself not to repeat anything related to that topic. "I'll see you later."

"Yea—mmph," I huffed as Grimmjow wrapped an arm around my shoulders and hugged me, pressing a kiss to my forehead. I felt a blush creeping up on me and gulped. _Maybe…I _should_ try this out_, I reflected. Wouldn't hurt, right? Hesitating for a moment, I hugged him back gently, so soft you wouldn't notice unless you were paying close attention.

He, apparently, was paying extremely close attention. I felt him stiffen a but before his muscles relaxed and he wrapped his other arm around me as well, smelling my hair. Knowing we were getting extremely comfortable, I backed out of the hug, feeling a cold draft settle in where Grimmjow's presence used to be.

"See you," I called out.

"Night, Alexia." My eyes widened as I recalled the voice from yesterday who'd said the exact same thing.

"That was you? Yesterday, I mean. Was it?" I asked.

"Well, you did tell me to come back and check on you, didn't you? And I did," he explained.

"No, you said that you'd see if you had time to come again," I argued, smiling and walking over to the door of my room, putting a hand on the knob. "Guess it doesn't matter, though. I'm just glad it wasn't Nnoitora who said it," I mumbled, a chill going up my spine at the very thought.

"Alright, see you, this time for real," he said, starting to walk away as well.

"Yeah, see…" the world seemed to spin as I lost my balance and fell, the corners of my eyes starting to be overcome by darkness.

The last thing I heard was a muffled yell.

Alexia: How. Fucking. Dare. You. T_T

Me: Shut up, you told me to make my rants shorter.

Alexia: XO That didn't mean you were supposed to cut me off!

Grimmjow: -.- What have you done to me?

Me: (Smirk) Lots of things.

Alexia: o.O Dear god.

Me: XD You know that's not what I meant.

Ulquiorra: T_T May I kill Grimmjow?

Me: ^_^' Y-you need to get better before you can go around killing people.

Ulquiorra: But—

Me: T_T Don't argue.

Ulquiorra: T_T Fine.

Me: So, what were you saying, Alexia?

Alexia: As I was saying—

Me: By the way, I wanted to thank KillingDesire for that b-day fic, and am eagerly awaiting the next chapter :D

Alexia: …You just took the words out of my mouth.

Me: Alright then! See you next chapter!

Ulquiorra and Grimmjow: We'll see you then.

Alexia: ;D Ouran High School Host Club flashback! Bye-bye!


	6. Way too lovey-dovey

Me: Hey, guys! I was in a huge writing mood this week!

Alexia: Seriously, she was keeping track and giving KillingDesire updates on her percentage done every five minutes.

Ulquiorra: I'm glad I made an appearance this chapter or the story would pretty much go to waste.

Grimmjow: ~.~ Hey, what's that supposed to mean!?

Me: T_T I have to agree, Ulqui-cielago is the second-most important character in this story.

Grimmjow: -.-' What about me?

Me: Third.

Alexia: Aw, it's okay, Kit-Kat (hugs Grimmjow)

Ulquiorra: (Charges cero)

Me: ^_^' Um…we're having some technical difficulties at the moment, but it'll be ok, I promise…? ULQUIORRA, YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO USE CERO OSCURAS IN MY HOUSE!

Ulquiorra: (sighs, then goes outside and dispels cero into sky) T_T Are you satisfied?

Me: -.-' Yep, that's gonna raise a few questions (sighs) Well, while I get this sorted out, you guys can read the sixth chapter. Enjoy~

"…Be alright?"

"Stop worrying, Grimmjow, you're starting to irritate me."

"But—"

"Grimmjow."

"What?"

"Would it hurt you to shut up?"

"…Yeah."

I groaned, cracking my eyes open. The first thing that came into viewers a blinding light, making me shut my eyes again. I cleared my dry throat and tried to speak.

"Wh—" I coughed out, not able to even start. My eyes adjusted to the bright light and allowed me to open my eyes fully. "What's…going on?" I managed to croak out.

"Alexia!" Grimmjow exclaimed. I turned my head in the direction of his voice and saw a messy blue mop of hair. His face came into view; there were the slightest hint of bags under his eyes. "Are you ok? Can you see me? How many—"

"Grimmjow…shut the hell up," I mumbled. "I'm fine…I think." I looked around, searching for the other voice I heard. "Who else was here?"

"I was," Szayel voiced, entering the room as if on cue. "I'm just going to do a quick checkup and you'll be free to go."

"I can't remember…what happened to me yesterday?" I asked, a feeling of foreboding dawning over me.

"You fell into a deep slumber, very close to being in a comatose state," Szayel explained. "You've been asleep for approximately fourteen hours. We tried various methods of waking you up, but you didn't even twitch." I let his words sink in. _Deep slumber…comatose…fourteen hours…didn't even twitch._

"How did this happen?" I asked.

"That's what we're trying to figure out," Grimmjow said. "You also fell asleep near the afternoon before that, but you woke up pretty quickly, immediately after I told you to."

"Did you do anything abrupt or out of the ordinary yesterday?" Szayel asked while checking my pulse, heartbeat and reflexes. A blush started to creep up my face at the remembrance of Grimmjow's actions fourteen hours ago.

"N-not much," I lied, turning my head to the side in a poor attempt to hide the reddish tinge of my cheeks. "I don't think your food tasted out of the the ordinary, either. In fact, it was extraordinary," I complimented him, pulling myself up and supporting myself on my elbows.

"Hmm, I think you might be onto something. The drastic change from the garbage that they usually serve you to the splendid dishes I made for our dinner have obvious difference in taste and ingredients," Szayel remarked, throwing in some narcissism. "That might've caused a disruption in your digestive system that triggered part of your nerve cells to tell your brain that you were sleepy."

"Wait…," I murmured, remembering my time with Ulquiorra yesterday; I then facepalmed myself rather loudly. "Crap."

"What did you just think of?" Grimmjow asked.

"I drank some of the water that was originally for Ulquiorra. Before either him or I had drank any of it, I'd put in some of the liquid in the vial Szayel gave me, and I probably drank some of it."

"Well, it all makes perfect sense now," Szayel stated. "While you two were having a drinking contest, I slipped in some anti-alcohol intoxication pills into your—"

"Anti- what?" Grimmjow inquired.

"Oh, Grimmjow," Szayel started, "you seriously need to pay more attention. They were pills that prevented the two of you from getting drunk. At first, I'd thought that they didn't work, but you both seemed to go from buzzed beyond reality to mellow, which took a huge weight off my chest as I realized that the pills just had a late reaction time." _So that's why we weren't drunk anymore by the time we got back to Grimm's room_, I thought. _Wait…did I just call Grimmjow 'Grimm'?_

_ Sounds kinda cute._

"Wait, when exactly did you insert those pills?" I asked.

"I believe it was before your fourth shot. I wouldn't consider your chalices shots, though, so if we had to convert I'd say it was the eighth." The numbers ticked off in my head.

"You're saying we drank fourteen shots of tequila yesterday?"

"That seems like…a lot," Grimmjow said, still processing the fact.

"Your body had a negative reaction from consuming two medications in one day; Ulquiorra's medication can't be taken with anything other than those pills you gave him within a twenty-four hour span."

"But that still doesn't explain why I suddenly grew drowsy in the afternoon," I reminded Szayel, who nodded in response.

"The most reasonable explanation I can come up with is this: the mere action of taking those pills was too much for your immune system to handle. You were never prescribed to Ulquiorra's medication in the first place, and it was your first time taking those kind of pills, I assume?" Szayel questioned. I nodded, him taking that as a signal to continue. "Well, that pretty much explains everything, anything else you're wondering about?"

"I think that's it," I replied. Szayel then proceeded to take my temperature and check my eyesight. I took a quick glance at Grimmjow after he was done, both of us making eye contact; but it seemed that he wasn't looking directly at me, more like he was looking through me.

"You should be a bit more aware of what you're doing, Alexia. I wouldn't want this to happen again, I don't know what'll become of you if this incident occurs one more time," Szayel said worriedly, although there was a scolding tone to it.

"I wouldn't want to find out," I said, slowly making my way off of the small cot I was situated on. I yawned loudly, drawing a surprised expression from Grimmjow.

"You've slept fourteen hours and you're still yawning?" he asked incredulously. "You turning into Stark now?"

"People yawn for reasons other than drowsiness, Grimmjow. It also helps with getting oxygen to refresh your brain," I informed him, hoping I worded that the right way.

"Well, sorry, Ms. Sleepyhead."

"Shut up," I snapped back at him. "We already know why that happened, unless you were being ignorant and didn't listen."

"If you two are going to argue, please do so outside of the lab, we have living organisms here, remember?" Szayel asked us, making us both instantly stop. I remembered the snat from two days ago and nearly ran off in search of it. "Ah, I suppose you're looking for the snat, correct?"

"Yeah," I replied briskly, whipping my head to my left and right, scoping the room to get a hold on my surroundings. Realizing that nothing looked familiar, I looked at Szayel, hoping he would give me some sort of clue.

"We're at the opposite side of the room, just go directly straight until you see a structure that looks like what you would call a lava lamp and go right a few feet. You can find your way from there."

"Thanks, Sza—"

"Wait, I'm going with," Grimmjow called out, running after me. "Just so that, um, I'll be there if something happens."

"Frankly, I might be in more danger if you're with me," I muttered, not sure if he heard me or not.

"Shut it, I'm just going so that you'll have company."

"I don't need your company."

"I do."

I fell silent, processing his words. "Well…if that's your real reason, then I guess it's alright. And don't say sentimental shit like that, I don't know how to take it."

"I'm not gonna just coop up all my feelings, I need to voice them, especially when I…ah…," he mumbled, a blush starting to form on his face. "You know."

"I definitely got the message yesterday," I reminded him, feeling a blush of my own on my cheeks, peeking at his expression. I couldn't tell if he was going to start crying or sneeze. Well, that was what it looked like, anyways. "If you're wondering, I'm not going to give you an answer right now."

"Why not?"

"Seriously, Grimmjow? I was in a half-coma, and you're worrying about what my answer is to your stupid question?" I regretted saying the last part right after I'd said it. I looked him in the eyes, giving him a silent apology. "But really, how was I supposed to think about your question when I wasn't even planning to fall asleep like that?"

"I _was_ worried," he replied. "If I wasn't, do you think I wouldn't have stayed awake the rest of the day, waiting for you to wake up? I nearly had a heart attack when I saw you collapse like that." I stayed silent, our footsteps resonating as we walked towards our destination.

"Sorry, I didn't think about that," I admitted.

"It's ok," he accepted my apology, hesitantly taking my hand and holding it as we walked, my eyes widening a bit at his display of affection. _Well, at least he didn't repeat yesterday_, I thought to myself, feeling my blush grow. I pondered a minute before closing the space between us, allowing our shoulders to brush.

"I honestly don't know what to do about this," I said, holding our joined hands up a bit to show what I was talking about. "I've never been in a romantic relationship before, and I've never considered you anything more than a friend, but now that I think about it…I think we could…um, work something out…," I mumbled, not knowing how to go about telling him that I would be okay with going out with him.

"You're saying yes?" Grimmjow asked hopefully, stopping in his tracks to look intensely at my face, making me feel a trifle uncomfortable.

"Technically…"

"Just say yes, Alexia."

"…Yeah. I'm okay with, er, being in a relationship with y—" I didn't get to finish as Grimmjow threw me into a hug, squeezing the air out of my lungs as he pressed my face into his bare chest.

"Thank you," he murmured into my hair, squeezing me tighter. "Thank you so much. You won't regret this."

"I'm already regretting this," I gasped, pushing away from him and breathing deeply. I saw the confused and slightly hurt expression on his face and scoffed. "You didn't do anything wrong, but you _were_ killing me in your massive hug."

"Oh. Sorry," he apologized sheepishly, scratching the back of his head and letting out a genuine smile, not one of his blinding grins. I smiled back, then looked at our surroundings. I squinted my eyes once an immense neon pink column came into view. _Yep, definitely looks like a lava lamp_, I thought. I then racked my brain, trying to remember what Szayel had said came after the lava lamp. "Uh, he _did_ say to go right, right? Or was it left…?"

"Who's lost now?" Grimmjow teased.

"Shut it, I don't live here so I don't know my way around here yet."

"You sure have bad remembrance skills."

"I'm guessing you know the way, then."

"…"

"Exactly."

I heard something akin to a mewl and snapped my head in its direction. _To the right_, I remembered. I motioned for Grimmjow to follow and soon came to a more familiar part of the lab. My insides melted when I saw the snat. There might as well have been a sign above its head that flashed, **I'm incredibly cute! Come admire me!**

_Admire I shall_, I thought to myself, walking over to the display case as if in a trance and crouching down to eye level with it. The snat sat and then tilted its head to the side as if saying, 'What took you so long?'

"Woooooow," Grimmjow said, coming up behind me. "Do you really like it that much?"

"No."

"Then why—"

"I love it."

"Big difference," he grumbled. I glared at him, shaking my head in disapproval.

"There is a big difference. It's just like our situation," I explained. "Before, I liked you as a friend who I could count on. Now, I…um, well, I like you a lot more than I did before and consider you something more." I smirked when I saw him blush. "Don't tell me that Kit-Kat was jealous."

"No, I just…"

"Mmhmm," I murmured, sending the message that I wasn't going to believe him.

"Alright, so maybe I was…a little envious about you wanting to see that thing more than-ow! What was that for!?" He asked when I bonked him on the head.

"It's called a snat," I reminded him.

"Whatever." He was able to block my next strike, a punch to the chest. "You try that and you're going to break your arm."

"Yeah, yeah, but it'll be your fault for having such hard hierro."

"Alexia," Szayel appeared suddenly, making me jump. "We have to hurry. Please follow me." I hesitantly got up and started to go after him, Grimmjow behind me.

"What's wrong, Szayel?" Grimmjow asked.

"It's Ulquiorra."

"What happened?" I inquired, a feeling of panic starting to creep up on me, picking up my pace as we exited the lab and walked down the halls of Las Noches.

"The pills and liquid in the vial are supposed to be taken exactly every twenty-four hours. It's been twenty-four hours…plus another fifteen minutes. It may not seem like too much, but it's the prefect situation in which Ulquiorra's other persona can take control." I broke into a jog, almost a run at Szayel's words.

"Crap, you're saying that Ulquiorra could be overpowered right now?" Grimmjow hissed, also running with Szayel and I.

"Maybe even more than that."

Within a minute or two, we arrived at the espadas' dorms. I could see the cart down the hall, waiting to be taken in to Ulquiorra's room. Once in front of his door, I knocked hastily.

No answer.

"Ulquiorra?" Grimmjow and I asked in unison.

"We're going to have to enter, even if he answers or not," Szayel informed, pulling a string of keys from his pants' pocket. Scanning through them, he chose one and inserted it into the keyhole, turning to the left. "Ulquiorra…"

The moment Szayel opened the door, a massive amount of spiritual pressure was released, making me fall onto my knees. My breaths turned into short pants and coughs, not being able to withstand the power radiating from Ulquiorra's room. I felt two strong arms lift me up and carry me away, lessening the feeling of being compressed into a 2-dimensional outline of me.

After I felt the person who carried me stop, I regained a sense of composure and looked around to find out where I was. I was once again in Grimmjow's room, the layout of his furniture reminding me from yesterday.

"Are you ok?" Grimmjow asked, laying me down on his bed and putting a hand to my forehead. "You're burning up."

"Don't worry," I assured him. "I'm fine right now, but before…it felt like I was being crushed."

"Yeah, that was Ulquiorra's spiritual pressure, and I don't think that was all of it. I'm surprised you didn't pass out."

"Is he really that powerful?" I asked. "It seems impossible to get any stronger than that." I noticed a bit of sweat near the top of Grimmjow's forehead. "Even you were struggling."

"Yeah, well, I hate to admit it, but he _is_ the fourth espada. He doesn't have that rank for nothing…but I'd love to see what would happen if we fought all-out to the—"

"You're not going to even try anything like that," I scolded him. "You'd probably get your ass beaten."

"Sounds like you're convinced I'm going to die."

"I am."

"Tch, why don't you have any confidence in me?" he asked playfully, ruffling my hair. "Remember, I'm your warden, I have to protect you now. If you don't believe in me, that's basically saying that you're ready to die." His hand that was previously caressing the long locks of my hair snaked down to cup my cheek. He leaned forward and planted a kiss on it, making my heart rate just about triple. "I don't want you to die," he whispered into my ear.

"Y-you're acting all soft all of a sudden, you don't have to be like this," I commented, not resisting him.

"I want to be like this."

"…I thought you'd say that." He pulled away and crawled behind me, seating me in his lap and making me lean against him. We enjoyed the calm quiet of the room and our breathing. Turning my face to the side, I heard a soft thumping sound coming from Grimmjow's chest. _His heart_, I thought. I remembered how I'd attempted to find Ulquiorra's physical heart yesterday, and failed (just saying, you know?). Ulquiorra…what were my feelings for him now?

"Grimmjow, Alexia. You can tend to Ulquiorra now, I— well, what do we have here?" Szayel inquired mischievously. I jumped away from Grimmjow, a giant blush spreading over my cheeks at the discovery of our actions.

"W-we were j-just…um, we w-were—" I stammered.

"I kissed her," Grimmjow admitted matter-of-factly. I whipped my head around and glared at him in embarrassment. "Then I hugged her. I was about to—"

"Shut up!" I interrupted, lunging forward and covering his mouth with my hand, all the blood in my body rushing to my head as I felt him smirk, then kiss my hand. "How can you speak so easily about this kind of stuff?"

"First of all," Grimmjow mumbled, licking my hand and making me yelp in surprise and disgust, "I don't see a problem with what we're doing. Second, Szayel already knew about my feelings for you." I wiped my hand on my sweatpants and looked at Szayel in surprise.

"You already knew…?"

"That's right," Szayel admitted. "I actually detected Grimmjow's feelings for you before he himself did. I chose to not tell you purely out of my own decision. I think it was the third day that you were settled in that I told him, and by the sixth he'd accepted his feelings. But, Alexia, you also have your own inner turmoils about your feelings, do you not?" I felt as if I was being turned inside out. _How does Szayel know all this?_ I mentally asked myself.

"You're right. I'm not exactly sure how to go about this, but I at least decided that I'd go one step at a time. I really need to sort some shit out," I resented.

"Ah, you should probably go see Ulquiorra now, he's been waiting; I gave him some sleeping pills, so they should be going into affect in about 10 minutes."

"What about his spiritual pressure?" I asked, afraid to find out what would happen if I had to face that feeling again.

"I've given him something that almost completely compresses his spiritual pressure, so you shouldn't feel a thing," he assured me, walking towards me and pulling a hand out to help me up. Glancing back at Grimmjow, he released me from his embrace and I took Szayel's hand, lifted myself up and headed out into the hall.

"I'll see you later, Grimm," I said, testing out the small name I'd given him. I smiled when I saw a slight blush appear on his face.

"See ya, Alexia."

I walked down the hall, pondering over all the crazy shit that happened in the span of two days. _I wonder if things can get any more dramatic…_

"Alexia, are you planning on visiting Halibel instead?" Szayel teased. I realized I had completely forgotten where I was going and passed Ulquiorra's room. I walked back hastily. "You have about ten minutes to get him to take his medications; please do that first and chat with him after. If you can't get him to take them I'll have to inject them into him while he's dormant."

"I understand," I responded monotonously, hesitating a moment before turning the knob of his door and going inside, pushing the cart along with me.

The atmosphere felt as if it was struggling against something, fighting some invisible enemy. I saw Ulquiorra in the same spot as yesterday, in his bed.

Not completely naked, thank god.

I didn't know whether I should've broken the silence, so I got the glass of water and found the small vial of neon pink liquid in a drawer on the side of,the cart. Carefully, I proceeded in inserting three drops into his drink, mentally reminding myself to not drink any of it.

"Have I hurt you?" Ulquiorra suddenly spoke up. I glanced at him and didn't answer. "I asked you a question, woman."

"Bossy," I said.

"That isn't an answer to my question."

"I know that," I argued. "I…well, I felt like I was being crushed, but I wasn't hurt. Why would you care, anyways?" Was it just me, or was I being a little harsh with him?

"I was only wondering, and is it a bad thing to ask about someone's health?" he responded.

"I guess not."

"Are you going to make me take that again?" he asked in disgust, already knowing the answer.

"How about this: as compensation for making me feel like I was being turned into a piece of paper, you have to take your medications," I compromised. He half glared/stared at me, telling me he didn't like this one bit but would do it just because he would make it up to me by doing so. I handed him his drink, then got the bottle of pills and handed him four. Giving a small sigh, he put the pills into his mouth and then took a huge gulp of water. I walked over to the cart and gave him his food; they were some leftovers from the feast yesterday, including…white rice.

I glanced at Ulquiorra. He was currently drinking the rest of his drink, apparently not looking in my direction. In the blink of an eye, I popped some rice into my mouth. I nearly died. _So damn goooood_, I inwardly sighed.

"What are you doing?"

_Shit, shit, shit!_

"Um…I wanted to see if the food was still good for you to eat. I wouldn't want you to, ah, get more sick than you already are because the food was rotten or anything." _That's such a stupid excuse, Alexia,_ I told myself.

"I see," he accepted with reluctance. I took the plate and handed it to him. I looked for silverware but instead found chopsticks. "What are those?"

"They're chopsticks. They're used to eat this kind of food," I explained, pointing to the rice, several yakitori sticks and a small bowl or ramen. "Do you know how to use them?" Ulquiorra shook his head. "Um, so, you position them like this, and put your fingers like this so that they can make a pinching action, and—you don't get any of what I'm saying, do you?" once again, he shook his head. "Here," I said, using the chopsticks to pick up some rice and and held it up to his mouth. I resisted the urge to say, _open wide!_

Yeah, not a good idea. Just because he was sick didn't mean that he couldn't use cero.

He opened his mouth, revealing teeth just about as white as Grimmjow's, although not as big and definitely not maniac-grin material. I carefully inserted the chopsticks into his mouth, watching intently as he closed his mouth and chewed thoroughly, savoring the taste of the rice. "Why does this taste different than the food from yesterday?" he asked.

_Cause this food doesn't suck._

"This food was made differently, I guess. The food they usually serve doesn't have a lot of sauce or seasoning. It doesn't even look like something edible," I commented. "I swear, whoever cooks the food around here seriously need to learn _how_ to cook before they go around making people nauseous and sick with their creations." I heard Ulquiorra mumble something I couldn't hear. "What was that?"

"I…"

"You agree?" I proposed.

"No…well, I do agree, but…"

"What is it, Ulqui-cielago?"

"I cook the food."

_Holy. Fucking. Crap._

"Oh." That was all I managed to say in my stupor. "Well…um…"

"You do not need to explain anything, woman. After all, it is your honest opinion," he said. He fell silent and suddenly yawned. _Oh my god, that's too cute!_ I internally screamed. "Is there something wrong?"

"No, just that, well, I don't think I've ever seen you yawn before," I explained. "Honestly, I thought you looked sorta cute."

"Cute?" I thought I'd struck a nerve, but by the look of surprise and embarrassment on his face I knew it wasn't that. "I am anything but that, woman."

"Oh, really?" I prodded, going into teasing mode. "Then I guess you're hideous."

"I am not that either," he argued. I noticed his eyes were lidded._ Ten minutes_, I thought. _Time must be running out._

"We'll continue this later, Ulqui-cielago," I informed him, "but right now you're pretty much going to literally fall asleep." I took his plate of food and noticed he didn't eat any of it except for the bit I gave him. Oh well. I'd just eat it instead. My mouth watered at the thought. "I'll see you later, 'kay?"

Silence.

"Ulquiorra?" I turned to face him, finding him fast asleep, his chest rising and lowering in a steady pattern. His face looked at peace, not bored or annoyed with the rest of the world. I smiled.

"You done yet?" I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard Grimmjow's voice grumble into my right ear.

"Yeah, I was just watching…?" I looked at Grimmjow and saw an obvious scowl on his face. "Really, Grimmjow? You're jealous, aren't you?"

"N-no…"

"Uh-huh," I said sarcastically. "I guess you're mad at Ulquiorra for falling asleep, then. He must be immortal."

"I was gonna tell him something, but not the fucker went and decided to take a catnap—well, it's true," he agreed when I glared at him. I shook my head.

"You do know that this's going to come back and bite you in the ass, right?" I reminded him.

"Whatever. Let's go," he said. We left and headed back to my room, both of us silent.

Someone just had to interrupt, though.

"Leeeeexiiii," a certain annoying-ass, prissy, bitchy—let's not continue. Nnoitora drawled my nickname out, just coming out from his own room, shirtless. I vaguely remembered the events from two days ago and subconsciously edged nearer to Grimmjow, snaking a hand behind him and clutching at his jacket. "Cowering behind your boyfriend?" he teased. _If you only knew_, I thought.

"Leave us alone, Spoon," I responded, standing a little straighter when I neared him, as if that was going to make me seven feet tall, like he was. "Don't you have something to do?"

"Nope."

"Master Nnoitora—ah." Tesla appeared in the doorway, his face flushed. His hair also seemed more ruffled and out of place. I noticed that his outfit looked like someone had pulled on it in an attempt to rip it off. "Um…"

"Well, well," I snickered. "You _do_ have something—sorry, some_one_—you should be tending to right now, don't you? Better hurry, don't wanna keep him waiting." Nnoitora's face turned red with anger and embarrassment.

"You—you fuckin' bi—," he started.

"Sorry, that's Tesla," Grimmjow chimed in, smirking. We broke off into a run once Nnoitora ran into his room and came back out with his sword in tow. "Can you stand it if I use sonido?" Grimmjow asked me.

"As long as we lose sight of him, yeah. I'm okay with it," I consented. We slowed down and Grimmjow picked me up bridal style. This time I didn't complain. We sonidoed about four or five times before Nnoitora's yells could no longer be heard. I felt a trifle more proud of myself when I didn't become nauseous. I realized that we, coincidentially, had arrived right at my room. I hopped out of Grimmjow's arms and ran inside, beckoning for him to come in too.

"Tch, I don't need to hide from him," he boasted. "I can take him on just fine. Watch me, I'm gonna kick his—" We heard Nnoitora's voice yell something that sounded like either 'where the fuck did you go!?' or 'water falling on yogurt'.

…Probably the first one. I wasn't even sure how I'd come up with the second. Grimmjow ran inside my room as if the devil was chasing after him, slamming the door shut behind him. We were both grinning like maniacs.

"So…about taking him on—" I started.

"Shut up."

"Whatever, Grimm, whatever," I said, shrugging casually. I sighed and looked around. I almost didn't notice how close Grimmjow was to me until he put an arm around my shoulders, pulling me towards him. I obliged, letting myself sink in his embrace. "Grimm…"

"You need to stop calling me that," he informed me.

"Why?"

"Cause…when you call me that, I can't constrain myself." I was confused for a split second before he clashed our lips together. My innards were melting at the feel of his lips on mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer until our bodies were flushed together. We stopped for a second to catch our breaths, staring into each others' eyes. A warm feeling flooded over me and I pulled away, heading to the bed before flopping on it and laying down, sighing contentedly. "You okay?" Grimmjow asked me.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, you just backed out of a kiss."

"I didn't back out, I just decided that enough was enough."

"Hm."

"What?"

"Are you scared?" Grimmjow mocked, sneering at me.

"No, why would I…? Am I supposed to be scared?" I asked.

"You look like it."

"Well, I'm not."

"Suuure, you aren't." I glared at him. "I've been leading all these kisses and you've only been following. If I didn't know better I'd say that you were afraid of kissing me."

"Wanna find out?" I challenged. I lunged toward him and gave him a hug before looking him in the eyes and lifting myself up slowly, gradually making my way to his lips…

And stopped.

I couldn't do it. No, more like I wouldn't; there was a small voice telling me to just do it, but there was an even louder voice yelling at me to stop.

"What's wrong?" Grimmjow asked, his voice tinged with curiosity. I backed off, fiddling with a strand of hair that fell in front of my face.

"Um…" What was I supposed to say? _Oh, a voice in my head is telling me to not kiss you, so I'm just going to listen to that voice, 'kay?_ "I'm just sorta confused about how—" I was cut off with a quick and soft kiss, completely shutting me up.

"You talk too much," Grimmjow murmured. "It's almost dinner time; you slept though breakfast." As if on cue, my stomach growled. I heard an amused snicker and blushed.

"I can't help it if I'm hungry," I mumbled, taking a seat at the table. "Hey, how can you tell what time it is around here?"

"I'm not sure. I think it's just something hollows have, so you probably can't tell what time it is," Grimmjow replied, walking over to the door and cracking it open a bit, peeking around to see if Nnoitora was lurking in the hallways.

I wouldn't be surprised if he was.

"I'll be right back, okay? Don't go anywhere," Grimmjow advised me, apparently thinking I was a five-year-old.

"Right, because I'm purposely going to escape and get lost just so that I can wander around for the next few hours. I mean, really, Nnoitora would be able to find me by the growls of my stomach." Grimmjow cracked a smile.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be back."

I smiled to myself once he closed the door, getting up and crawling onto my bed. I stared at the ceiling and sighed contentedly. "Being in love…is this what it feels like?" I asked myself. The way my heart raced when Grimmjow's eyes locked onto mine and the way I melted into his touch whenever he caressed me.

Not to mention his kisses pretty much sent me into cardiac arrest.

But when I'd attempted to kiss him…I'd doubted my actions. Why? That was what I was currently breaking my head over. I started to bite my nails, a bad habit of mine, as I pondered over possible reasons for my hesitation. Fear, doubt, confusion, panic, intimidation, the list was endless. I sighed once again. _I've been doing that way too much lately,_ I thought.

"Baaaaaack," Grimmjow's voice rang out as he entered, carrying a drink I couldn't identify and two plates of food covered by a napkin. "Bet you're feeling like a queen right now, huh?"

For a split second I could imagine Grimmjow in a suit, his chest actually covered for once. It actually seemed similar to his appearance in the fourth popularity poll, in which he'd gotten fourth place.

Oh god, I sound like such a geek.

"Yep," I agreed. "And you're my butler."

"Then who's your knight in shining armor?" he asked mischievously, raising a hand when I started to get up, telling me to stay there. "Is there someone better at kissin' ya than me?" I blushed profusely. "I'll take that as a no, then."

I huffed and said, "Just gimme the food already."

"Someone's bossy."

"Correction: someone's hungry."

"Can't argue with that," he agreed, getting the pillows on my bed and stacking them on the headboard, then telling me to lay on them as support. Once I was situated where he wanted me, he unfolded a tray much like the ones at hospitals and put it on my lap. He then proceeded to place two plates of food on the tray and the mystery drink on it. Taking a close-up look at my drink, it looked like something akin to 7up or Sprite. He flicked the napkins off of the plates to reveal a plate that looked like a replica of Ulquiorra's food. The other had small pieces of cake and other sweets. "It didn't look like anything on Ulquiorra's plate was eaten, so I decided to use that, and I found these pastries."

"…food," was the only thing I managed to say before stuffing myself with white rice, although using chopsticks wasn't the best way to do that. I stopped once I saw Grimmjow staring at me. "Well, I was hungry…and you know I love white rice…" My expression changed from embarrassed to confused as Grimmjow gently took my chopsticks out of my hands. Once I saw him reaching out and trying to grab some rice with them, I quickly shielded the rice with my hands and blocked him.

"Really, Alexia?" he asked incredulously. "I wasn't going to eat it, I was just—"

"If you aren't going to eat my food, then what are you going to do? Eat the chopsticks? You must be desperate to—hm?" I was responded to with a quick swat to my hands and a mouthful of rice in my mouth.

"Thought ya might want some help," Grimmjow smirked, holding the chopsticks currently in my mouth. My eyes widened as I realized that he was feeding me, my skin turning into a ripe tomato.

"S-stop being such a damn flirt," I murmured, eating the rice and taking my mouth off the chopsticks. "Can't I eat in peace?"

"Nah."

"Bastard."

"Cutie."

"Fucker."

"You bet I am." That only made me blush harder, shoving him away as he laughed at me.

"Perv," I muttered, grabbing my chopsticks and continuing to eat while keeping out an eye for Grimmjow's perverse behavior. He got up and walked around, scoping my room. He stopped at the heart I'd painted two days ago with the words '**Ulquiorra's heart**' on it.

"When did this appear…?" he asked.

"Oh, I did that the same day we painted," I explained. "Turns out Ulquiorra was helping out with the paint job instead of terminating it."

"Oh."

"You are _extremely_ jealous today," I noted, munching on yakitori. "Don't you understand that I'm with you, not Ulquiorra?" After finishing the yakitori I started on the ramen. I wondered how I could have overlooked these other choices of Asian cuisine. I almost forgot that Grimmjow was there but was reminded when he was suddenly right in front of my face, staring at me intently. "What the hell?"

"I love you."

_Wait, wait, wait…what in the fuck!?_ I screamed. "Ah, um…I…uh…," I tried to form a response but found myself not knowing what to say. "Y-you've made it obvious enough." It sucked, but it was the only thing I could think of.

"Yeah, and I'm about to make it obvious again," he murmured, leaning in closer and making me panic.

"Wait, all the plates and everything are still on the bed," I reminded him. His expression turned to annoyance once he realized I was right and quickly retreated the tray and its contents off of the bed before going back to his current activity, leaning over my seated form and softly pressing our lips together. We went slow, up until I felt his tongue run along my lips. Remembering from yesterday, I knew he wanted to…to, well…

Put his tongue inside my mouth. It sounded a bit weird; as I'd said before, this was my first time in a romantic relationship with anyone. Just the concept of it was a bit strange, but I certainly didn't have a problem with it yesterday. And I already knew that this was French kissing, considered a normal type of kissing (how many types _were_ there?), so there wasn't anything too out of the ordinary. I stopped for a moment before opening my mouth, feeling his tongue invade. I was extremely thankful that his tongue wasn't anywhere as long as Nnoitora's. After getting used to the feeling, I started to respond, mingling my tongue with his as if we were battling or arguing.

"Feisty, aren't you?" Grimmjow murmured against my lips, pulling back. I barely managed to contain the whine that threatened to escape my lips at the loss of contact. Before he could get off the bed, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pecked his cheek chastely.

"Grimmjow…"

"Yeah?"

"I have something to ask you," I told him. I saw his expression go from slightly aroused to confused as I let go of his neck.

"What is it?"

"It's about your hollow hole," I said, tracing the edge of it with my index finger, making him gasp lightly.

"D-don't do that," he advised me, hastily grabbing my wrist and pulling it away from his hole.

"I don't get how you can eat," I said, ignoring him. "I mean, you have a mouth, intestines and esophagus but no stomach; it completely defies logic, yet you eat as if there's no hole in you."

"I don't know either," Grimmjow admitted. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

"You've never wondered where all that shit you eat goes?"

"…No."

"Geez, Grimm, you're so ignorant sometimes," I scolded him.

"Well, as long as I can eat, I don't need to know how it works," he argued.

"Ah, speaking of food, where are those pastries you found?" I asked, craning my head and locating the plates and tray on the table. I tried to get up myself and retrieve them but Grimmjow pushed me back down onto the bed and got them instead. "Why didn't you let me get up?"

"I wanted to get them for you," he explained. He grabbed a small chunk of cake and held it up to my lips, me glaring at him before reluctantly eating it.

"You're making me feel like a lazy-ass," I commented, "what with you not wanting me to move at all and stay in bed all day." I flicked my tongue out and licked off some of the frosting that had been smeared on my bottom lip. My eyes widened when I saw Grimmjow staring intently, biting his bottom lip and blushing a bit while watching. "Why, you fucking pervert!"

"Well, how was I supposed to react!?" he defended himself.

"Either way, you're too sick for you're own good," I said, getting a small brownie and taking a bite out of it, almost getting a bit of it on my clothes when I tasted melted chocolate on the inside of it. _Dark chocolate_, I took note of the type. _My favorite_. But I instead decided to not hoard it all, so I gave the other half to Grimmjow, holding it to his lips like he had mine. He smirked before consuming the rest of the treat so fast I thought he might've bitten my thumb and index finger off as well, which were the fingers imwasmusing to hold the brownie.

"That was good," he stated, kissing my still outstretched hand. "It's pretty late, you should sleep."

"Really?" I asked. It was one of those days where the hours passed incredibly fast. "Around what time is it in the human world?"

"Well, I can't say for sure…," he started, both of us getting off of the bed so I could undo the sheets of the bed and spread the pillows out, "but I think it's almost midnight over there." I looked down at what I was wearing and sighed.

"Why didn't you tell me I've been wearing the same clothes for a whole day?" I scolded him, putting a hand on my hip. "I feel awfully dirty now." I ran off into the bathroom and quickly washed my face, deeming it appropriate for now, and I'd just have to shower in the morning. I brushed my teeth with the small white toothbrush on the corner of the sink and came out a few minutes later, feeling a little more fresh.

"What the hell just happened with your voice just now?" Grimmjow wondered, making me blush. _And I thought I'd had my accent under control_, I thought.

"I-i'm British."

"…The hell does that mean?" I facepalmed. _My skull's seriously gonna break one of these days._

"I sorta forgot that you don't know the human world too well. Hm, let's put it this way…you know how there are different territories in different places, and each territory has a history and traits of its own?" I saw him nod and continued. "There's a crapload of territories in the world of the living, called countries. The one I used to live in, Great Britain, one of their traits is that they have a certain way of speaking. Well, I lived there for the majority of my life, but I moved to a different country for five years and kind of lost my accent, but apparently it's not completely gone."

"Sound nice."

"Thanks."

"A bit sexy, too," he grinned his famous grin and ruffled my hair while I scowled in embarrassment. _This's why I don't use that voice anymore_. "You should use that more often, but only for me," he whispered into my ear, then proceeded to fold the overs back so I could crawl in. After a bit of reluctance I eventually did, and he climbed in with me, holding me close to him and letting out a content breath. "I lo—"

"Shut it, Grimm. I know, and…I…" I suddenly felt awkward. I didn't know why it was so hard for me to respond; but the question was…_did_ I love him? "Grimmjow, I—"

"You don't have to tell me right now," he said, detecting a bit of sorrow in his voice. "I just want you to know that I'm certain of my feelings."

"…"

"I'll stay with you until you fall asleep, don't worry. Go to sleep, Alexia," Grimmjow murmured, pressing a kiss to my forehead and embracing me tighter. "I'll see you in the morning." I snuggled up against his chest. I'm not sure if he heard my words before I fell into slumber.

"I think I love you, too."

._.–._.–_.–._.–._.–._.–._.–._.–._.–._.–._.–.

Me: (Jamming to Gangnam Style)

Alexia, Grimmjow, Ulquiorra: O.o

Me: ^_^' Oh yeah, the chapter ended.

Alexia: o.O' No shit. That was one crazy dance.

Grimmjow: I have never seen anything as stupid and—

Me: Fun?

Grimmjow: Crazy—as that.

Ulquiorra: I must admit that that was…out of the ordinary.

Me: :D But it's fun, regardless.

Grimmjow: T_T Whatever

Alexia: Hey, what happened to Gin?

(All turn around and see Gin dancing to Gangnam style)

All Except Ulquiorra: Ō.Ō

Ulquiorra: Seeing as I am the only one who has their senses, I shall be the one to inform you: if you would, please voice your comments, concerns and opinions in the small box at the bottom of the page.

Me: Yeah, and maybe you'll see Ulqui-cielago dancing next :3

Ulquiorra: T_T Don't count on it.


	7. Rough going already…? Just Great

Me: TTTT_TTTT

Alexia: The hell's wrong with you?

Me: (Takes shaky breath) I just watched episode 272 of Bleach…bwaaaaaa!

Alexia: O.o? What so special about—wait…T-T I know what you're talking about now.

Ulquiorra: What exactly happened?

Me: (Glomps Ulquiorra) Nothing! Absolutely nothing! I'll make sure nothing happens to you!

Alexia: -.-' Hey, who am I supposed to hug?

Me: T_T Grimmjow.

Grimmjow: Why the hell are we acting like we're at a fucking funeral?

Alexia and I: TTTTT_TTTTT

~._.~._.~._.~._.~._.~._.~._.~._.~._.~

**DAY THREE, PART ONE**

_Ahhhh…what time is it? It seems sorta dark out, but I don't wanna move around just to look at my clock…_

_ Great, I can't even remember what day it is. I hope today's Saturday, that means a new dubbed episode of Bleach comes out today at 11:00 pm, even though I don't really like english dub I'll still watch it. If it's a school day I'm gonna be pissed. Damn, I should probably eat something, my stomach just growled. Bea's going to wake me up soon, she's always awake before I am…she's a morning, noon _and_ night person, unlike me. Crap, did I have homework? I totally forgot what it was…oh well. And if I'm going to school I'm going to have to face that son-of-a-bitch Murci…damn kid needs to know what personal space is and—_

_ …Wait…_

_ Alexia, you stupid bitch._

I facepalmed myself and took in my surroundings. I couldn't really process the fact that I was so stupid as to forget that I was in Las Noches, in my room with Grimmjow next to me.

Or not.

My eyes widened, the space next to me was empty, but was still warm when I touched the spot. I rolled over and basked in the leftovers of Grimmjow's body heat. For some reason, I never created heat in the places I slept, as if I was some sort of cold-blooded reptile. I felt a pang in my chest, wishing that Grimmjow himself was here, although I already knew he wouldn't be here since he'd told me so yesterday. Taking a deep breath, I managed to convince myself to get out of bed and into the bathroom, breaking into a small jog when I realized I was barefoot yet again.

"Ok, Alexia, take a damn shower…," I told myself as I headed over to the ceramic tub built into the wall, inserted the plug at the drain in order to fill the tub and turned the left knob to the left. A splash of scalding hot water shot out, some of it jumping into my eyes as I winced, blinked a few times and rubbed my eyes in annoyance. I turned the same knob to the right to tone the stream down and gently started up the cold water until the overall temperature was lukewarm. I quickly took off my clothing and sank into the tub, trying to get most of my body submerged. Only my head from the nose up could be seen above the water, my long hair floating around me. Water had always been like a friend to me; I enjoyed swimming, going underwater for long periods of time and even wished I could breathe underwater at times. Once again, I wondered how there could be a source of water anywhere in a place like Las Noches.

Rising from the water, I reached over the other side of the tub and grabbed the soap and shampoo and started cleaning myself, all the while wondering where Grimmjow could've gone, what time it was and if Ulquiorra was awake by now as well. _My whole life revolves around those kinds of questions now_, I thought. Well, it wasn't as if I was going to ask myself about what was going on in the human world, which was of no concern to me anymore. Then again, I wondered if there were people looking for me…or maybe they thought I was dead.

As I rinsed my hair out by turning on the shower head above the tub and pulling the shower curtain around me so as to not spill water all over the floor, I thought I heard a knock at the bathroom door but instead paid it no heed, deciding it was my overactive imagination. I proceeded to apply conditioner to my hair, humming a Spanish song I'd heard when on a trip to Mexico, 'Mariposa Traicionera' by a band called Maná. I stopped abruptly when I once again thought I'd heard someone, a clearing of the throat this time, and looked around me, not seeing the silhouette of anyone…or anything, for that matter.

"Alexia," a raspy voice said, nearly making me jump out of my skin. "You forgot something."

"W-who is this?" I asked nervously, chewing on my bottom lip and edging to the wall of the shower. My eyes widened when I saw a shadow of a person start to appear and automatically shot my hands out to hold the sides of the shower curtain where they were, if the person there tried to pull it away. "Who are you?"

"What do you mean? You know who I am," the voice said, the shadow coming into focus more and more, inadvertently telling me that he was getting closer. Something about the voice seemed familiar, but I couldn't really put my finger on what exactly it was. "You need to remember what to do before taking a shower." _Like locking the damn door, Alexia_, I scolded myself.

"I'll ask you one more time: Who the hell are you?" I repeated, not knowing where my sudden confidence came from. "And what're you talking about, me needing to remember what to do before taking showers?"

The mystery person cleared his throat a few times, then went into a coughing fit, which made the intense atmosphere dissolve a bit as I started to feel a bit worried for the guy…_yeah right_. The coughs continued for another few seconds before he finally stopped, clearing his throat a few times before deciding to answer. "Ok, first of all, you forgot to take your sandals and a towel with you to the bath. Second, what do you mean, 'Who the hell are you'?"

Oh, so it was Grimmjow.

"I seriously thought you were some fifty-year-old pedophile just now, you sounded like you were dying," I commented, peeking my head out and motioning for him to put the sandals on the floor next to the tub and taking the towel to set on the rack inside the shower.

"Correction," he said.

"What did I get wrong? You _did_ sound fifty years old, you came into the shower while an eighteen-year-old, almost nineteen, was showering and sounded as if you were dying, sooo—"

"I'm actually 347 years old."

"WHAT!?" I exclaimed.

"Exactly what I said, stupid," he replied. I really tried to process that information, I did, but it was unbelievable. In my opinion, at least. "How old were you expecting me to be?"

"…Not 347." I fell silent, focusing on washing the conditioner out of my hair. Three hundred forty-seven years ago…wasn't that during the times of the Great Plague of London? Was that how Grimmjow died? A _flea_ killed Grimmjow?

"And I don't think being eighteen still qualifies as a kid—" I couldn't stop a small chuckle from escaping my lips, accidentally getting some conditioner in my mouth. "You alright?" Grimmjow asked. _Oh, I'm more than alright._

"Hey Grimmjow, do you remember how you died?" I heard nothing but silence and I started to wonder if he'd left or something. "Grimm?"

"I…I don't want to talk about it. Don't ask me that again."

_Huh?_

"Grimm, are you okay? You don't sound like yourself," I noted. "You know, if there's something you're troubled about you should tell someone." He didn't answer, making me a bit pissed. "Or I could, you know, force it out of you." I turned off the water, wringing out my hair and grabbing the towel off of the rack to wrap around my body. Carefully, I pulled away the curtain and stepped out of the tub onto the small carpet next to it and stared at Grimmjow, who looked like he was having some sort of inner argument with himself.

"…I don't think that would be the best thing for you to do. Don't even _try_ to force shit out of me, I hate it when people do that." I didn't reply and proceeded to put on my sandals._ Grimmjow…what the hell is with you? _was what I wanted to ask, but I—strangely— was a bit afraid of what would happen if I really tried to get an answer out of him by force. Before I knew what I was doing, I found myself hugging Grimmjow, burying my damp hair in his chest.

"Grimmjow…," I started, not intending to continue. We stayed in the same position for a few moments, enjoying the silence.

"Alexia, what're you doing?" He asked in confusion.

"What does it look like, dumbass? I'm hugging you."

"You know that's not what I mean. I'm asking why."

"…Or would you rather I not hug you? I guess all your love was wasted yesterday, now you're acting as if you ha—heh," I muttered. On the verge of pulling away from the hug he'd finally responded and hugged me back.

"Would you like me to give you a bit of proof that I still got some love left in me?" he whispered into my ear, making me jump away. I glared at his smirking face. "You were asking for it."

"I swear, you show your feelings a bit too much sometimes," I remarked. "Can't you be a little more like Ulquiorra?"

"And talk to you like this?" Grimmjow imitated Ulquiorra by making his voice a few tones deeper and tried to keep a straight face. He used his index fingers to trail two lines from his eyes to his chin, symbolizing Ulquiorra's tear marks. "Oh, wait, I know just the thing: Trash," he said. "Trash, trash, trash. Trash-ety trash, trash. Trash this, trash that. Trash everywhere." I was getting a bit angry at the way he was portraying Ulquiorra; he might call some people that, but I'm sure he had a reason. Either way, he was wearing my patience thin every time he uttered the damn word. "Trash, trash, he's trash, she's trash, they're trash, I'm—"

"Shut up," I muttered, putting a hand over his mouth, my expression deadly serious, probably giving away some of my anger and annoyance. "You shouldn't judge him simply by how he is when in a crowd. If you just get to know him better personally you'll find that he's not as bad as you think."

"You're right, he's probably worse," Grimmjow said, snickering. "Why the hell are you defending that bastard anyway?" I glared in disapproval at him, turned my back on him and stomped out of the bathroom. In blind rage I slammed the bathroom door, leaving him inside while I tried to contain my anger. I paced back and forth, rubbing my temples and taking deep breaths. The problem was, I didn't know why I was getting so worked up over this.

** 'Uh, duh, because Grimmjow's being an ignorant bastard and he's insulting Ulquiorra'**, a voice in my head responded. Great, now I was imagining other people living inside my brain. Grimmjow's idiocy must rub off on people.

_Either way, I knew he was just being a dick and didn't really mean to get me angry_, I replied to the voice.

** 'That doesn't mean that what he said was something to just pass off. You should probably confront him about it, don't you think?'**

_ I guess…_

**'And if he doesn't wanna back down, that's when you have official permission to be a bitch to him. But I doubt he's going to go against you, seeing as how he's in a phase of obsession with you right now.'**

_What do you mean?_

** 'You really think he's going to be this infatuated with you for eternity? I'm not saying that you're an unlikable person, but these kinds of fixations aren't usually long-term.'**

_Are you saying that he's going to gradually lose interest in me?_

** 'What else, if not that?'**

I was about to go off on the other voice (or myself, whoever it was) when Grimmjow emerged from the bathroom. At some point I had subconsciously decided to put on some clothes instead of pace around the room all day, so I was a bit surprised, to say the least, I hadn't realized my actions. I looked at what I'd put on: a long-sleeved royal blue shirt with a black sweater that draped downwards, had two pockets with straight-leg white pants. Not wanting to show Grimmjow my facial expression, which I was 98% sure looked like pure hatred, I kept my back to him and took a deep breath before speaking.

"Grimmjow," I stated, letting him know that I knew he was there. I heard the clack of his shoes and knew he was heading toward me. A hand clamped down on my shoulder and turned me around roughly. I faced harsh cyan eyes with my dark brown ones. Deciding to take the plunge, I asked, "Why do you judge Ulquiorra so harshly?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe cause I've had to deal with him for more than a hundred years? I know him better than you do, that's a fact," he said bitterly.

"But have you ever tried to truly get to know him?"

"Unless you think a conversation where I'm asking him questions about himself and all he comes up with is condescending answers like, 'why would you care', 'your brain probably doesn't have the capacity to understand' and 'I prefer not to waste my time on you, trash', no." I sighed in exasperation.

"You aren't exactly a patient person, I know that. I also know that you two are pretty much the sun and moon. Regardless, don't you think that not mouthing off at him and giving him pressure would be a better path at finding out those things?"

Grimmjow sighed, turning his gaze away from me. "I don't get why you care so much; if it was me, I wouldn't give a shit about him in the first place. What about him would make you _want_ to get to know him?"

"Like I said, once you do start to know him better you'll find that he's not as bad as you think." I tried not to lose my cool.

"Yeah, he's worse."

The cool I never had.

"What about him is making you hate him do damn much?" I whispered. _Calm down_, I told myself. _As that voice said, he'll hear you out and then come up with a resolution for the both of us._

"He's a bastard, do I need to write a speech about all the heartless and condescending things he's said and done to me?" Grimmjow responded, fueling my anger. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths. "And why would you care about what my status with him is? It's none of your business." I guess he did have a point there.

"…Fine, I'll drop it for now," I said, regretting ever bringing up the subject. The atmosphere seemed tense, more than what I would have liked. Grimmjow looked at me apologetically before planting a small kiss on my forehead that almost went unnoticed by me, as I was deep in thought. "Hey, what time is it?"

"Um…if I had to guess, I'd say it's around 10:00 a.m., I'm not exactly sure. We should probably get going to that ba—" he stopped when I gave him a cold glare. "To Ulquiorra's quarters." I nodded in agreement and we headed out in silence, each of us in our own worlds. All too soon, we arrived at Ulquiorra's room, the cart already outside of his door.

"I hope we're not late…," I murmured, trying to break the silence. I grew exasperated when he didn't answer. "Grimmjow, stop being a fucking prick."

"What? I'm not—"

"All I did was ask a question, and now you're acting as if I'm some stranger to you," I remarked. "Honestly, if you want to act like this I have no problem returning the favor." Before Grimmjow could respond I rushed inside Ulquiorra's room with the cart of food and slammed the door behind me. I needed to keep some space between us before I did something stupid. Leaning against the door, I rubbed my forehead and tried to get the recent events out of my head.

"Hmmm."

I jumped, completely forgetting that Ulquiorra was there. I looked up to bid him good morning and saw that he was still asleep. I wasn't sure if he could be any cuter than he was at that moment. On his side, his mouth half open, eyes closed, hair draping over his face, arm tucked under his head, I had to fight an 'aw' threatening to escape me. His expression looked so peaceful, the usual nonchalant façade not visible in the least.

"Ulquiorra, wake up," I murmured, walking up to him and shaking his shoulder in a poor attempt to get him awake. I sat in a seiza* position on the floor next to his bed and watched his steady breathing for a few minutes. I almost dozed off from watching him and decided it was time to call him back into the world. "Ulquiorra…hey, wakey-wakey, time to get up."

All at once, Ulquiorra's eyes snapped open and stared straight into my eyes, surprising me. "W-woah," I said, laughing nervously. "That was a bit sudden."

"I am not exactly a deep sleeper," he explained. "A few minutes prior do your entrance I woke up but heard you conversing with Grimmjow and decided to feign sleep."

"You…you heard what we were talking about?" I asked in half-shock.

"You didn't seem to be on very good terms with him."

"Yeah, well…we were just discussing something we disagreed on," I replied, omitting the details about our topic of 'discussion.'

"I am assuming that you wish to disclose the information regarding your topic of discussion with him," he concluded, right on target. He stared at me intently. "Is there something going on between you two?"

_Damn, he's too smart for his own good._

"W-well, we…um…" I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell him that that Grimmjow and I were an item, although we were already on some rough ground at the moment.

"I don't necessarily take a liking to not being informed on certain situations," he…warned? But I couldn't imagine anything he could do at the moment, seeing as how he was still ill. I could tell by the way his eyebrows were furrowed together a bit, his lips pursed and his usual I-don't-want-to-waste-my-time-on-you demeanor wasn't as evident. I noticed that he seemed to be having trouble breathing through his nose, an obvious rise and fall in his chest. There was nothing to be angry for, so that was out of the question…

"Well, um, Grimmjow and I…we…at the moment, we're…"

"You're what?" Ulquiorra prodded.

"We're in a relationship." There was a moment of silence following my sentence.

"That much is obvious." I facepalmed.

"No, that's not what I meant." His comment seemed to lessen the awkwardness in the room, making it easier for me to word my response. "Do you remember…the day before yesterday, I believe it was, that I was trying to explain what love was?" His response was a nod. "Grimmjow and I, you could say that we…uh, we l-like each other. A lot," I said, choosing not to use the word love for the sake of being blunt. In truth, I still wasn't sure of my feelings for Grimmjow, but they were apparent enough that I should explore them, seeing as how I got so flustered around him.

"So, what kind of love is it?" he asked curiously. I blushed and fidgeted with my hands, trying to come up with an adequate answer.

"It's the kind where you feel as if your life revolves around that person," I said. It was partially true; I had the urge to hug the living daylights out of him whenever I saw him now, but today was incredibly different. We had our small arguments before we were a couple, but they were nothing compared to today's fight. We ended up being pissed off at each other and didn't converse or tease each other. I wanted to apologize for how much I'd defended Ulquiorra, it was as if Ulquiorra was my boyfriend and not Grimmjow.

Then again, there had been the two, almost three years of having an obsession of sorts about Ulquiorra, so that could've been the reason for my outburst of anger. I was almost convinced now that I didn't exactly love Ulquiorra, I just admired him and thought highly of him.

_Right?_

"I see. Grimmjow seems to be troubling you to a great extent today," Ulquiorra noted, me nodding in response. Was it me, or did I hear Ulquiorra sigh? "He'll come to his senses soon enough, and then you can scold him all you want."

"But you don't even know what we were fighting about," I countered. "And I let a trifle too much of my anger seep through, it wouldn't have been as brutal if I hadn't." I let out a sigh of my own, rose up from the floor and got Ulquiorra's pills and inserted the three drops of the vial into his drink. I handed them to him, making contact with his overly warm hands. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. _Don't tell me he has a fever_…I pressed a hand to his forehead.

"What are you doing, woman?" he inquired.

"I'm checking to see if you have a fever. Hey, do you feel overly warm? Dizzy, drowsy, any of that?"

"No. Although my body temperature does seem to be a bit above normal." I went over to the cart and found a handkerchief in one of its drawers and headed into the bathroom. Flicking a switch to turn the light on, I quickly soaked, then wrung out the hanky, then folded it into a medium-sized rectangle. I exited the washroom and made my way back towards Ulquiorra. I placed the handkerchief on his forehead, under his mask.

"Hopefully, this should ease it down to normal temperature," I mumbled, not knowing what to do. He'd already taken his medication, probably when I was wetting the handkerchief. I quickly scoped the room and was surprised to find that there were things in Ulquiorra's room that I hadn't seen before, and didn't expect him to have; his dresser had an analog clock, he had a desk in one corner of his room with a computer chair and a reading lamp. What surprised me the most was a shelf at the back of the room, with books on every shelf, on top of the bookcase itself, on top of shelved books, even piles of books on the side of the shelf. I went over and read several titles.

Gone with the wind– Margaret Mitchell.

Romeo and Juliet–Shakespeare.

The notebook–Nicholas Sparks.

The time traveler's wife–Audrey Niffenegger.

Wuthering heights–Emily Brontë.

Pride and prejudice–Jane Austen.

Memoirs of a geisha–Arthur Golden.

Kissed by an angel–Elizabeth Chandler.

_ …Ulquiorra? Reading romance novels? What kind of blasphemy is this?!_

"You've read these?" I asked incredulously, pulling out _The Notebook_ and flipping to one of my favorite parts and began to read it. I didn't usually read romance novels, but this particular one had caught my eye, and I was glad it had.

_**Allie took a sip of bourbon and began to feel its effects. But it wasn't just the alcohol that made her hold Noah a little tighter and feel his warmth against her. Glancing out of the window, she saw the clouds were almost black. "Noah, you've never asked, but I want you to know something."**_

**_ "What is it?"_**

**_ Her voice was tender. "There's never been another, Noah. You weren't just the first. You're the only man I've ever been with, I don't expect you to say the same thing, but I wanted you to know."_**

**_ Noah was silent as he turned away. She felt warmer as she watched the fire. She leaned into him and felt the heat between them, felt his body, felt his arm tight around her. It felt so right to be here. Everything felt right. The fire, the drinks, the storm—it couldn't have been more perfect. It seemed their years apart didn't matter anymore._**

**_ They gave in then to everything they had fought against for the last fourteen years. Allie lifted her head off his shoulder, looked at him with hazy eyes, and…_**

I only just realized that Ulquiorra had been answering my question until I had paused for a moment and looked at him. His expression was just a bit quizzical, although it wasn't too noticeable. "Sorry, I was really into this book and didn't hear you."

He let out a small sigh and said, "I have read all the books in, on and around that shelf. I am reading some for the second time, others for the third, and a few for the fourth." I was impressed; did Ulquiorra really like those kinds of books that much? "I find the characters' ideals confusing and somewhat idiotic, so I try to reread them to understand better but I am still at a loss."

_ I stand corrected._

"So, you're only reading this to try and see if you can learn what love is from them?" I asked for confirmation. He nodded firmly. "You don't find any enjoyment out of reading these?" I lifted _The Notebook_ a bit to point out what I was talking about.

"I never intended to read them for entertainment purposes. They were simply a means to inform me on the so-called 'love' humans refer to, that and the heart."

"You should try to relish while you read," I suggested, handing him the book. He looked at it nonchalantly. "Books are like bridges to other worlds; you can forget about your other troubles and lose yourself in this shit." I surprised myself by swearing; I mean, I definitely swore, but I didn't find myself doing that around Ulquiorra. It was a good thing, I was trying to decline the number of times I cussed as it was even starting to annoy me as well.

"…I might take it into consideration," he replied.

"Great."

"Then again, I might not."

_Well, then…_

"Are you hungry?" I asked, starting to walk over to the cart to get the food there, then saw that there was nothing there today. I wondered who the bastard was that forgot to put some, knowing it was for the fourth strongest in Aizen's army. "Um…sorry, even if you are, I'm afraid there's no food today."

"It is alright, I was about to tell you that I was not hungry anyways." I let out a relieved chuckle. "And you? Have you eaten?" Why would he ask me that? I asked myself.

"Ah, no. I haven't, but I'm not really hungry either," I answered. I, once again, found myself not knowing what to say or do for the moment.

I found that I didn't have to when Ulquiorra suddenly said, "There's a great feeling I have right now."

"What do you mean?"

"It is akin to annoyance," he said.

"Oh, sorry if I'm—"

"That is not what I meant. I told you two days ago that I was a bit envious of humans, did I not?"

"Yes…," I responded hesitantly, getting a feeling that I knew where this was heading.

"It is something similar to envy, yet is it completely different at the same time. I wish to be in the same condition as you are, being able to get out of your room. I want to get out of this place. I am growing tired of being greeted by the same setting every day and knowing that it will be all I see for the rest of the while that I am bedridden. What would you call this?"

"Let's see…," I started, walking over to Ulquiorra's desk and sitting in his chair. I was still a little surprised that he'd chosen to tell me all that, and in one go. "Well, if there had to be something exact, I'd call it coveting." It was a reasonable answer, seeing as how coveting meant that you yearned for something deeply.

"That does seem accurate," Ulquiorra agreed. I started spinning around in his chair, not caring if he was watching or if I got dizzy. "What are you doing?"

"Honestly…I don't know."

"Will you not become nauseous if you do that?" he wondered.

"Maybe," I replied, slowing to a stop. The world was still rotating around me when I tried to walk again, ending up falling onto the floor. "Pfft." I waited until I had a better grip on my surroundings before getting up again, this time making it to Ulquiorra's bed before sitting down on the edge of it and taking a deep breath. "Why are you worrying so much about this, anyways? You have…four days left, I believe. You can wait; if there's someone who's patient and can handle it, it's you," I encouraged, smiling warmly at him. "It'll be over before you know it."

"I suppose you are right," he contemplated.

"And if you don't get better, I'll take care of you as long as you want me to, okay?" I proposed, leaning over and flicking his nose with my thumb and index finger, smirking when I saw his eyes widen a bit. Then they returned to their usual wideness and, in return, he did the same, making me give out a small blush and laugh. Pondering over my next actions for about 0.02 seconds, I crawled closer and hugged him. He didn't respond, and I assumed it was because he didn't know how.

"What is it that you are doing at the moment, woman?" he questioned.

"Hugging," I said bluntly, not letting go of him. "People who are acquaintances or friends do this with each other. Does it make you feel better?"

"Is that what I am supposed to feel?"

"Something like that."

"I…"

"You what?"

"I think you are…hugging…a trifle too tight." I let go abruptly and cleared my throat, scratching the back of my head in embarrassment and apology. "You should probably get going, your partner is most likely starting to suspect you of doing something that you aren't," Ulquiorra advised. I thought about what he could've meant by that, and who he was referring to. Then it all hit me in one blow.

"My partner…Grimmjow?" I voiced my thoughts. Ulquiorra replied with a quick 'yes' and I continued. "But why would Grimmjow think that I'm doing something aside from what I've been assigned?"

"I am concluding this purely from my own inferences, but I think that Grimmjow is the type to become jealous quickly when it concerns things he cares about," he clarified, making me blush a little, although it pissed me off a little that Ulquiorra had said 'things' and not 'people.' "Besides, you have been here for an extended amount of time than the other days you came here. It has been almost three quarters of an hour."

"Really? It feels as if it's barely been fifteen minutes." I got up and flexed my arms, then twisted my body side to side to get my muscles loosened up, hearing a satisfying crack from my back. "I'll see you tomorrow, alright?"

"Yes," he replied. I saw the bored look in his eyes as he realized that he'd have nothing to do but sleep for the next hours.

"Hey, why the depressed face?" I asked, then sweat dropped once I realized that that was his usual expression. "I mean, it's evident that you're displeased with me leaving, but remember what I told you: just four more days and you won't be in your room's clutches anymore."

"That is something to look forward to," he consented. "I will see you tomorrow."

"Mhmm," I hummed. As I made my way to the door I reminded myself to stay out of the door's way in case Grimmjow decided to barge in again.

I came very close to my suspicions; this time it seemed Grimmjow remembered his actions and peeked through the door for a split second, making me jump in surprise. Once he saw that there wasn't anyone in the way, he closed the door quietly, making me stare at the door weirdly. Then the door banged open, showing a pissed-off Grimmjow, which convinced me to facepalm myself.

_He just had to do that anyways_, I thought. "I can't believe you just did that," I told him, smacking Grimmjow's forehead and ignoring the fact that Ulquiorra was watching. "There's absolutely no reason to—"

"You were taking too long," Grimmjow interrupted. "I swear, I would be pulling you by your ears right now if _that_ wasn't watching." He bobbed his head in Ulquiorra's direction, making an angry tick appear on my temple.

"Stop disrespecting him," I hissed quietly enough so that Ulquiorra wouldn't be able to hear. "And I haven't forgotten this morning; don't think that I've forgiven you."

"Oh please," Grimmjow muttered in a tone that Ulquiorra could definitely hear. "He's not worth ignoring me for, if anything it's the other way around, he acts like he's some king when he knows that—"

"Grimmjow!" I all but hollered. "Just…please…shut the fuck up," I mumbled, walking out of the room on my own.

"Tch, it's not like you can find your way to your room."

…_Damn, he was right._

I'd walked the same path about three times, if not, more, and I still didn't know my way by myself. I made a mental note to start keeping track of where I was going. "Fine, just get me back to my room already."

"Come back here, first," he commanded, earning a glare. "What?"

"I'm not your goddamn slave, don't order me around."

He sighed loudly. "Can you please come back over here?" he asked with a bitter tone. I held my head high and calmly walked over, hands in the pockets of my sweater. Once I was within arms length of him I slowed to a stop and stared at him expressionlessly.

"Why exactly did you need me to come over here again?" I asked.

"Hey, Schiffer," Grimmjow growled, completely ignoring me.

"What is it, Sexta?" Ulquiorra inquired, his voice portraying annoyance and impatience as he turned to face him.

Grimmjow's right hand lashed out and grabbed my left arm and yanked my body flush against him, my eyes widening as his other hand cradled my chin and crashed our lips together. His tongue forcibly entered my mouth. My hands automatically fisted in his hair, silently telling him to stop. "You know you like it," he whispered into my ear, his breath fanning across it and making me shiver and clamp my hands on his shoulders. He planted heated kisses along my jaw and neck and gently bit on a particularly soft area of my neck, making me squirm. I could barely maintain the moan that had threatened to release itself from my lips at his actions. I felt him walking forward, resulting in me having to walk backwards until I was pressed against the frame of Ulquiorra's bedroom door. Ulquiorra…my eyes peered at him and I immediately felt disgusted at myself for not stopping this sooner when I saw Ulquiorra hiding his expression by hanging his head low. His hands were fisted, his whole body tense.

"Mm—ah!" I murmured as Grimmjow grinded against me. "Grimm…jow…"

"Tell me," he said seductively. "Tell me and Ulquiorra what you want."

"Grimmjow…"

"Yeah?"

"Get off of me."

There was a moment of silence. No one moved, shifted, blinked or even breathed. "…What was that?" Grimmjow asked, starting to kiss me again. I firmly pushed him off and looked him in the eye; his eyes were raging, there might as well have been a California wildfire in them.

"If you're going to kiss me, you can wait until we get back to my room," I told him coldly. "Don't think that I don't know why you chose to kiss me right now."

"What are you talking about?" Grimmjow said, laughing nervously. "It doesn't have anything to do with where and why I kissed you, Alexia. Besides, we're not planning to keep this a secret, so—"

"Grimmjow, cut the fucking crap!" I shouted, surprising both Grimmjow and Ulquiorra. "You're trying to either make Ulquiorra jealous or you're trying to get a point across, you made that pretty damn obvious! And now—" I snatched his hand and hauled him inside Ulquiorra's room, "—you're going to apologize to him."

"N-no way!" Grimmjow argued, whipping his hand away from me and looked in scorn at Ulquiorra. "I ain't apologizing to that bastard, it's enough that he treats me like crap!"

"I shall treat trash as they should be treated: a piece of garbage that no one and no thing cares about," Ulquiorra's voice was dripping with bitterness, fueling Grimmjow's anger.

I gasped as Grimmjow sonidoed past me and threw a punch, aimed straight for Ulquiorra's face. "Stop it, both of you!" My heart skipped a beat as I heard a slap of skin against skin echo through the room, time freezing as no one dared to move yet again.

When I got the guts to see what happened, I saw Grimmjow's fist blocked by Ulquiorra's hand, less than three inches away from his face. Ulquiorra was putting up an obvious struggle, a bit of sweat had began to form on his forehead. I then remembered his fever. _This isn't going to be any good for him_, I thought. I hastily separated their hands and laid Ulquiorra down, pushing Grimmjow out of the way.

"Ulquiorra, are you alright?" I asked worriedly.

"I am fine, I only need to rest. For the moment, you should most likely—"

"I can't believe you," Grimmjow muttered venomously. "You're always on his fuckin' side. You never think about what I feel when I see you with him. Why can't you try to understand!?"

"Because," I relied, my voice barely above a whisper, "I already knew you were jealous, but I didn't think you'd go this far to get Ulquiorra and I to be distant to each other. Grimmjow…I'm disappointed." I saw him open his mouth to speak but I already knew what he was going to say and started up again before he could say anything. "And Ulquiorra wouldn't have called you trash if you hadn't gone and done that with me in front of him, and to top it off you also deliberately acted as if you weren't intending to."

"I…Alexia, you don't understand…"

"Please, Grimmjow, it doesn't take a genius," I remarked. He paled at my words, finally realizing how ignorant and selfish he was acting. "Now: apologize."

"…" Grimmjow clenched his teeth, angered that he had to do it now. "Fine. I'll fuckin' apologize."

"It's just one word," I reminded him. "Not like it's going to kill you."

"It will. At least, mentally."

_ …No, Alexia, don't choke the crap out of him_…I settled for a bonk on the head, only making him give a small huff.

"…ry," He mumbled halfheartedly. He dodged my other fist. "What the hell!"

"When you apologize, at least say it so that he can hear," I scolded, crossing my arms.

"Tch!" Grimmjow said scornfully, but finally said the word, "Sorry."

"I am quite used to your outbursts, and although this one was quite graphic, I am not bothered," Ulquiorra said, a blush immediately forming on my cheeks. "Please do be considerate of the people around you if you choose to do that again, though." I stayed silent for a few moments, trying to get my blush under control. Once I felt my face temperature decrease and Grimmjow stopped sneering at me, I spoke again.

I heaved out a big breath of air. "Was that so hard?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Oh, shut it," I replied, starting to leave. Peering over at Grimmjow when he didn't assume his role and lead the way, I raised an eyebrow at him. "Hello, aren't we leaving?"

"Schiffer," Grimmjow started, his voice sounding on the verge of shouting.

"What do you want now, Sexta?" Ulquiorra responded boredly. "I believe you've already made a point of what message you wanted to get across."

"Yeah, but just in case your brain is too plain stupid to understand, I'm going to say it instead so that you don't forget: Alexia is mine." I felt his spiritual pressure increase, letting Ulquiorra know he didn't like sharing. Then again, why the hell would I decide to be in another relationship while I'm with him, anyway…?

"Grimmjow, you're getting carried away," I commented. As I walked back over to him I reminded myself that I was with him, not Ulquiorra. That the person I was supposed to love was Grimmjow. That Ulquiorra had been a mere phase of obsession.

So why, when I pecked Grimmjow's mouth hastily and succeeded in shutting him up, did I feel a pang in my chest? Why did I not make any more contact with Grimmjow and instead looked at Ulquiorra with an apologetic expression? And why, oh why, did I imagine, for a split second, that Ulquiorra was returning the same look?

"We'd better get going," Grimmjow said, triumphantly slamming the door and walking down the hall, grabbing my hand and dragging me along with him. "Finally got that over with."

Frankly, I didn't give a shit anymore.

"Hey, you're gonna have to come with me to the meeting we have today, apparently Aizen wants you to take notes so that you can tell Schiffer."

"…"

"Seriously, I don't know why we have to have meetings if the only one who's really listening is Ulquiorra. It's such a damn pain."

"…"

"Hey, are you mute, deaf or both? Why aren't ya saying anything?" he asked. Once again, I didn't answer. "If you wanna tell me something, you can; that's what I'm here for." He slung an arm around my waist and pulled me closer to him as we walked.

"Oh, really?" I finally spoke, shoving my hands in the pockets of my sweater. "I would think that some_thing_ that's yours wouldn't be able to speak for themselves." It was a lame excuse for what I was really worried about (which I still wasn't sure of), but he didn't know that.

"Ah, that's what you're being all moody about?" he asked in a teasing manner. _Note to self: Grimmjow is extremely ecstatic when in victory over something_. I silently nodded, not looking him in the eyes; that only convinced him of my lie, to my advantage. He gently took my chin in one hand and gave me a quick kiss, although it was anything but small, his tongue invading my mouth for a split second before parting and sighing. "It's a little secret of mine, but I can be overprotective sometimes."

"Your 'little secret' definitely isn't a secret anymore," I commented. "And what do you mean, 'overprotective _some_times'? More like you're sealing me away from the rest of the world, as if I was some sort of valuable antique. I can take care of myself, you know."

"You're sure as hell not an antique, but you are extremely valuable," he complimented. Toning down my anger, I gave a small smile.

"I am, amn't I?" Grimmjow let out a laugh.

"Yeah." I was relieved that our tension had deteriorated, if only a small amount. But…

There was still a sense of unease in me. I couldn't stop myself from thinking about Ulquiorra. _Shit, what the hell am I going to do tomorrow, when I see him again?_ My brain was going into overload as I pondered over everything.

I _did_ love Grimmjow, didn't I? I obviously enjoyed having him around, but the more I thought about it, I realized that it was as if he and Ulquiorra were on the same ground. The only things separating them were Grimmjow's _very_ public displays of affection. Then again, it wasn't like Ulquiorra knew anything about love. So…

Why…?

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

Me: 'Kay…I feel mellow right now…

Alexia: -.-' I feel confused as fuuuuuuuuuuuck.

Ulquiorra: T_T How long must I wait until I can kill Grimmjow?

Me: ^_^ Four days.

Grimmjow: ~.~ Hey, you're not supposed to encourage him!

Me: Aw, why not?

Alexia: T_T! You kill him and I'll…uh…

Me: (Smirks)

Grimmjow: x.x

Me: ANYways, if you have any questions about my fic, don't hesitate to ask. Or if you wanna make a comment on how awesome my fic is, that's ok, too ;D

Alexia: (Mumbles incoherently)…bitch.

Me: T_T What did you say?

Alexia: I said you're a—(sees Ulquiorra staring intently) I, uh…I said that Orihime's a bitch.

Me: T_T (Inner rage) Yeah.

Grimmjow and Ulquiorra: ?

Me: T_T Don't worry about it. See ya later!

*Seiza position–An upright kneeling position traditionally used in Japan

Disclaimer: I do not own _The Notebook_ (clearly, I would be a much better writer if I was)


	8. Decisions, Confusion…and too many kisses

Me: (Jamming)

Alexia: What the hell are you listening to?

Me: T_T Skrillex, Avicii, Flux Pavillion, Bassnectar, Noisia, Deadmau5—

Grimmjow: Sounds sorta weird…

Me: It's not weird, it's awesome! Not to mention, it's incredibly stimulating for me while I write -.-

Ulquiorra: …

Me: What do you think, Ulqui-cielago?

Alexia: He thinks it's horrible, don't you, Ulqui-cielago?

Ulquiorra: T_T …

Grimmjow: (Sighs) You can never tell with him.

Ulquiorra: It sounds like…some sort of…I am not sure…

Me: :D But do you like it?

Ulquiorra: (Hesitates, then nods slightly)

Me: :3 I knew you would!

Grimmjow and Alexia: T_T'

Ulquiorra: Everyone, please read chapter eight at your leisure.

…

**DAY THREE, PART TWO**

Two hours had never passed by so goddamn slow. Especially when there was nothing to do and your boyfriend was trying to suck your face off.

"Grimmjow, seriously, sto—" I was cut off again as he connected our mouths for the 9,000 time. The first hour and a half back in my room was fine, I'd fixed up my bed, eaten some more leftovers (barbecue chicken with mashed potatoes and stir fry), written inside my journal (that you're probably reading right now, aren't you?), fixed my hair into a bun and brushed my teeth, now feeling fully awake and ready to challenge the world.

Except, there was absolutely nothing to do.

So I'd decided to complain to Grimmjow in hopes that he'd take me somewhere, anywhere but my room, and this is what he'd come up with; kissing, and teasing the hell outta me when I refused. Somehow I'd ended up cornered by him on my bed, resorting to using the pillows to try and hit him. I failed miserably and he was able to take advantage of the situation.

I growled and pushed Grimmjow off me roughly, although I didn't shove him away too far and he was able to grab my wrist, pulling me on top of him. Part of me giving up and the other fighting, I gave him a small kiss and quickly ran off the bed and into the bathroom, locking it behind me.

"Hey, come back here," Grimmjow laughed, his voice right outside of the door, which I was leaning on.

"Y-yeah right," I panted. "Not if you're gonna keep trying to eat me."

"You know, even though I'm pretty sure you taste good," Grimmjow started, making me blush, "if I ate you that would mean I wouldn't be able to be with you anymore."

"No shit."

"Open the door."

"No."

"Come on!"

"No."

"Don't make me—"

"You've been so busy kissing me that it seems you forgot we had a meeting today."

"…Shit, we're gonna be late," Grimmjow admitted. I breathed a sigh of relief and cautiously opened the door little by little. I peered my head out and saw that Grimmjow wasn't anywhere in sight. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. I took a hesitant step out of the door and all I saw was a blur of blue before I was pinned against the wall by a grinning Grimmjow.

"Grimmjow…" I was starting to get a little pissed. I swear, in a way, he was like Murci…

But you don't know about him, do you?

"Just let me kiss you for more than five seconds, for once?" He commanded more than asked. I rolled my eyes and then closed them, deciding not to fight his intentions anymore. I felt his lips against mine and didn't refuse. "Open your eyes."

"…"

"Please."

I cracked one eye open and raised an eyebrow at him. "So…why are you suddenly kissing me like I'm going to die tomorrow?" He stopped for a moment to think about my question.

Right when I thought he was going to say something philosophical or smart (for once), he shrugged and said, "Just felt like it." Go figure.

"As I said, we're going to the meeting. If we arrive late then they're going to start assuming things."

"Like what? Not like I care," he responded, caressing my cheek before attempting to lay a kiss on my neck. I quickly slid to the floor and out of the way before he could. I crawled away from him by passing through his legs, earning a bark of laughter from him. "The hell are ya trying to do?"

"One, I'm trying to convince you that we need to get going and two, I'm getting as far as possible from your mouth," I muttered when I stood up again. I sighed as I felt an arm wrap around my shoulders in a hug, then succumbed and relaxed under his affection. "And…we're going. Now."

"Fine…," he consented. He let me go and instead held my hand as we left and headed to the meeting room.

"I hope we don't have to follow a lizard today?" I teased.

"Shuddup," he said, although he was smirking at my comment. "I've been to enough meetings to know where I'm going." I was deciding whether or not to ask him exactly how often he had meetings, but he seemed to predict that I was going to ask him that and said, "We have meetings…I don't know, maybe twice a week? I don't get why the hell he does it, every damn time it's the same damn thing; Keep training, blah blah blah, don't lose sight of your objectives, blah blah, don't kill each other, blah—"

"So you _do_ listen to what he says?"

"…I used to, then I realized that he was repeating shit and stopped."

"Go figure, but I thought that you didn't necessarily care about Aizen's plans."

He was silent for a few seconds. His expression was a lot more thoughtful than I thought he could pull off.

And that was saying something. I didn't think he could pull off an expression _that _serious.

"We…the espadas, all of us were curious about Aizen," he started, walking at a slower pace than before. I knew he was about to launch into a long explanation, so I didn't say anything about it. "He just showed up outta nowhere like he owned the damn place and obliterated Barragan's army—he, Gin and Tôsen. The guy practically radiated omnipotence and ambition. It was the same thing hollows strived for: power, especially for adjuchas. So, naturally, we were sorta drawn to him. At least, that's how it was for me." I stared in astonishment.

I didn't know those words were in his vocabulary.

"Uh…wow," was all I managed to say. I cleared my throat and processed everything he'd explained. "So, how did you meet him anyways?"

"Oh, one day I was about to eat my fracciòn and he suddenly intervened, I started fighting him and he almost killed me."

"…"

Seems legit.

"He almost killed you? What do you mean?" I asked.

"…He was about to kill me, and then he said the strangest thing. 'If you wish to slay me one day, then you should join my forces to become strong.' The bastard said it as if I wasn't already strong!" he hissed, clenching his hands. "So, I got angry and told him that if I joined his army, I could kill him after he had accomplished what he wanted. I immediately regretted it when he smiled and replied, all obliging and shit. That stupid smile of his…"

I put a finger to Grimmjow's lips. "Don't you dare start ranting on my ass. I hate Aizen four times as much as you do, but you don't see me complaining." Grimmjow's expression turned into one of confusion.

"Why four times as much?"

I shrugged. "Four's my favorite number, and it's the first one I thought of so I just used that. Why, did you want me to say 'six times' or something?" He shook his head. I chuckled. "It's sorta ironic that both four and six are unlucky numbers in Japanese culture."

"Jam-and-cheese culture?" I burst out laughing, then laughed even more when I saw Grimmjow's what-the-fuck look.

"Japan…is another…part of…the world—haha!" I said between spasms of laughter, albeit not as severe as before._ I definitely needed that laugh_, I thought to myself as I got a hold of my breathing pattern. "Therefore, you know, anything related to Japan is Japanese."

"Ah." I looked at Grimmjow quizzically. "You're really cute when you laugh. I need to do funny shit more often." I blushed a little. In reality, I didn't like my laugh at all, which led me to changing it a few years back. I'd gotten so used to using my altered laugh that it was now my normal laugh, fortunately.

"Mhmm." I felt extremely content all of a sudden, even when we reached a set of double doors leading into the meeting room. Even when Grimmjow put a hand on the handle of one of the doors and sighed before hesitantly opening the door.

Of course, happiness doesn't last _that_ long.

"Well, would you look at who decided to show up," Aizen said, his smooth-as-silk yet intimidating voice pissing me off to no end. For a second, his tone of voice reminded me of Ulquiorra's other half, who's voice was similar, minus the 'pissing me off to no end' part.

With Ulquiorra's other half, it was more like 'Making me fucking paralyzed in shock.'

"Wouldya look at that?" Nnoitora's voice rang through the room. I searched and found Nnoitora standing by the table, huge piano-teeth grin set in place. He started walking towards me. "So they weren't fucking into oblivion right now!" I momentarily felt a surge of rage followed by surprise yet again.

How did Nnoitora know what oblivion meant?

"Nnoitora, you know you're only saying that cause you're jealous, right?" I continued before he could interrupt. "And I'm not that easy to convince into fucking, so no, that's not what we were doing."

"That's because ya practically beg to be fucked, don'tcha?" I clenched my teeth in rage, balling my fists tightly enough to draw blood. "Ya probably go and ride the first guy you can find, right?" He was so close now that I could see myself reflected in his eyes.

_Don't…Alexia, calm down…_

"Bet ya wanna see what it's like to ride me, huh, Lexi?"

"YOU BASTARD!" I shouted, my fist colliding with his face. I expected him to not be affected at all and probably hit me with a thousand times more force than my punch. I expected my hand to probably break in half from the force of hitting Nnoitora's hierro. What I didn't expect was Grimmjow cradling me against his chest. His katana, Pantera, was aimed at Nnoitora's throat and was actually very close to it, so much that I had the urge to push the sword forward and plunge it straight into Nnoitora's neck. "Wha…"

"Don't ever come near her," Grimmjow hissed. I glanced at Grimmjow's facial expression and—

Dear god, even Satan would be scared.

"Grimmjow, Nnoitora…Alexia, if you would all calm down and—"

"How the hell am I supposed to calm when he's saying shit like that!?" Grimmjow yelled at Aizen, making him raise an eyebrow casually.

"Grimmjow!" Tôsen called out, inadvertently telling him to not disrespect Aizen.

"Grimmjow, please calm down," I whispered. "We don't need to waste our time on him, let's not start something we're going to regret." Grimmjow didn't respond, didn't even look at me. "Grimmjow, I said calm down." The grip on my arms tightened.

"This isn't over." I was probably the only one who'd heard him. I put my hand on his right wrist, struggling to pull his hand and, therefore, sword away from Nnoitora. "Tch." I heard him gulp before he reluctantly sheathed his sword. He released me and I rubbed my arm, where he'd been holding me. The damn bastard pretty much cut my circulation.

"Ne, why don'tcha sit down?" Gin voiced. Aizen, Gin, Tôsen and the espadas were already seated. I realized that everyone had seen what was going on. Nodding silently, I made my way over to the table and sat down. I also realized that this was the seat Ulquiorra would usually sit in and felt a bit guilty, as if I was replacing him or something. Grimmjow was directly across from me, Stark was to my left, and—well, I must be the luckiest person in the world.

Aizen just had to be to my right.

"Well then, let us be served some tea before we begin," Aizen said. A servant appeared, balancing a tray stocked with cups and what I assumed was the pitcher of tea. His hands were a bit shaky and as a result, the clatter of the cups clinking with each other could be heard as he carefully set a cup down in front of each of us. Everything was silent until he handed me my cup.

"Thanks," I told him. His large dark-blue eyes stared at me and he nodded nervously. His hands were noticeably less unstable as he poured the tea into my cup, then proceeded to fill everyone else's. _These servants seriously have some self-esteem issues_, I thought.

I looked at the tea; it didn't seem to have any hue, and it isn't have a scent either. I grew suspicious of what exactly this tea's herbs were. Hesitating for a second, I held the cup up to my lips and took a small sip.

_What. The. Hell._

"W-what the hell is this!?" I exclaimed, my tongue burning. Okay, so I'd forgotten to blow on it before drinking, but…I put two and two together and everything connected. "This's just boiled water, there aren't any herbs in it!"

"Ah, so you've noticed," Aizen said. "You've probably never heard of this, but drinking boiled water can cleanse your bloodstreams, remove toxins from your body, can make someone more optimistic, kills pathogens and cleanses your immune system. Of course, someone as dimwitted as yourself couldn't possibly care less."

I tilted my head to the side. "You're basically saying that your bloodstreams are clogged, your body is toxic, you're a pessimist, and have an extremely weak immune system?" I asked for confirmation. He flashed his signature smile.

"If you wish to think that, you may, but it is not true."

"Will do," I replied, saluting him with a hand to my forehead. "So, let me guess today's topics of discussion. Ahem—" I cleared my throat and glanced at Grimmjow before continuing, "Keep training, don't lose sight of your objectives, don't kill each other, and—how could I forget?—blah, blah blah?" I winked at Grimmjow and saw him snickering.

"You're incredibly confident, yet you don't seem to understand that any of us could kill you, at any given moment. Does that not frighten you?" Aizen asked.

"…Eh." For some reason, I didn't really care if I was killed or not. I shrugged and said, "I don't have anything to be scared about. I'm going to die eventually, I'm not an arrancar, or a Soul Reaper for that matter. I'm just a human that randomly popped up in here and decided to make your lives more interesting."

"Alexia, regarding you becoming an arrancar…," Tôsen suddenly spoke up. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Have you forgotten? 'You have potential in our army, the question is if you're willing to do your part.' Do you recall it now?" Realization dawned over me. I had completely forgotten about him asking me that last time I went to a meeting, with Ulquiorra around a week and a half ago. "Well then, are you willing to become an arrancar?"

"Me? B-become an arrancar?" I murmured, my eyes wide. "How is that even possible?"

"The hogyoku's power, if pushed hard enough, can do the impossible. All we need to do is use the power of it to make you into a hollow, then into an arrancar. Or you could be eaten by a hollow and then we would turn the hollow that ate you into an arrancar and make sure that the dominant soul in that hollow's body is you. Either way you put it, there are countless ways to accomplish this task," Aizen informed us. I was a bit disgusted at the idea of being eaten by a hollow purposely on my behalf.

"How are you sure this is going to work?" I asked, just biding time so that I wouldn't have to give him an answer right away. "You've never done this before, have you?"

"Not at all," Aizen deadpanned. "But there is always enough time to try it, and if you die in our attempts, then you can consider yourself honored to be a test subject of ours." A bit of rage hit me. _So that's all I am. A damn test subject._ I shouldn't have expected anything else, anyways.

"Sorry, but I can't answer you right away," I said coldly. "It's a bit of a harsh question, don't you think?"

"Would you like some time to think about your options?" Tôsen suggested. I nodded firmly. "We are not planning to begin our war anytime soon…Lord Aizen, when do you suppose will we start our war?"

"Wait, why the hell does she need to turn into an arrancar to help us out?" Grimmjow interrupted. "Can't she just, like, help the injured?"

"And what makes you think that there will he injured persons?" Aizen asked calmly, letting his head rest on the back of his right hand. "It seems as if you are not confident in the abilities of your allies, and hence, our army." I saw Grimmjow's eyes narrow.

"That's not what I meant, and you know it."

"Do I?"

"Yeah, you do," Grimmjow responded angrily. "Of course, a bastard like you never knows for sure, so you always have to make sure you're right and not wrong, huh?"

"Grimmjow," I warned. He merely glanced at me and went back to staring at Aizen not even a second after.

"Maybe you should listen to the girl, Grimmjow. She certainly seems to have you tamed." Grimmjow scowled, his teeth glistening. His hands that were atop the table balled into fists. _Crap_, I thought,_ this's getting out of hand._

"I-it's not that I have him tamed," I started. "He isn't some animal. But, Aizen, you're deliberately trying to piss him off; why the hell are you doing this?" It was an incredibly weak statement and question, but I managed to turn the tables as Aizen's gaze shifted over to me. I too soon regretted it.

I immediately got a pounding pain on my temples and my hands flew up to try and massage the pain away. Squinting my eyes didn't clear the blurriness that came over and claimed my eyes. My throat became dry and I had trouble breathing. "D-damn…," I panted out, just barely. In my struggle I reached for my cup of water (although I wasn't exactly sure if boiled water would help much), but only succeeded in knocking the cup over, making the water spill and spread over the table.

"Aizen, what the hell do you think you're doing!?" I heard Grimmjow's voice, but couldn't see him anymore. A blanket of black was starting to come over my eyes, as if something or someone was lulling me to sleep. I felt someone's arms wrap around my shoulders and hold me close to their body. I realized who it was when I heard Grimmjow's voice again, this time at a much closer range. "Alexia! Hey, Alexia!"

I gripped at the air and found the feel of Grimmjow's jacket and hung on as if his vest was a lifeline, and a very weak one at that. "Aizen…you…" I wasn't able to get out more than that before I felt that I was in motion.

"That stupid, cocky, son of a bitch!" Grimmjow hollered as we slowed to a stop. As my eyesight began to regain its focus again, I saw the hatred and vengeance gleaming in his eyes. His right hand was on the hilt of Pantera, his left holding the sheath. He could've been breathing out invisible fire for all I could've known.

I noticed that we were just outside of the meeting room. I thought I heard Aizen's voice on the other side of the doors, but decided that I was being paranoid. My eyes widened when I saw Grimmjow unsheathe Pantera and stalk over to the door. Hastily, I ran over and blocked his way, momentarily making him unable to run inside and try to kill Aizen (which I was about 90% sure would end in failure).

"Grimmjow, stop it. Stop it," I repeated as he glared at me with feral eyes, making me a little scared. They really were like the eyes of a panther. "Grimm…"

Grimmjow sighed, the animalistic look in his eyes slowly fading away. "Sorry, I just…I can't bear to see you in pain. Dammit, I'd gladly die for you if that's what it took to not see you like that." I was in shock. "You don't know what it's like, not seeing you smile sometimes just makes me die a little on the inside. I want you to be happy, and apparently it's a lot to ask for, cause a shitload of bastards keep getting in the way of that."

"I…Grimm…" I didn't get a chance to respond as he kissed me longingly, his hand now supporting the back of my neck instead of Pantera. I succumbed easily, wrapping my arms around his neck. "Mm…"

"Alexia, I love you," Grimmjow whispered, pulling back. I turned a bright shade of red at his words. I tried to hide my expression by shielding my face with my long hair but failed miserably.

"Ah…I, um…" There I go again, I told myself. _Why can't you just say it and get over it? Four words, that's all they are. 'I love you, too.' Dammit, just fucking tell him already!_

_Oh, that's right, you don't know if you love him or if you're just doing this out of obligation and/or pity._

I settled for hugging him tightly instead of answering him. He hugged me back gently, taking in the scent of my hair. "We should probably get going." My eyes snapped up and looked at him.

"Back into the meeting room?" I asked curiously, knowing that both Grimmjow and I wouldn't be able to handle if it we were as close to Aizen as we were before.

"Hell no, we're going to my place," Grimmjow replied. "I swear, if I have to even look at that bastard for another second I'll kill him so hard he'll die to death." I smiled and chuckled slightly at his exaggerated manner of describing how he was going to kill Aizen.

"Well, that's definitely an intricate explanation," I remarked, smirking. "Certainly sounds like it would hurt."

"I'll make it hurt," Grimmjow replied. The rage that left his eyes was starting to appear again, and I flicked his forehead with my thumb and index finger, distracting him. He sighed and closed his eyes for a few seconds, then opened them; there were no traces of anger in them anymore.

"Hey, wanna just walk around?" I suggested casually, binding my hand with his and starting to pull him along. "I'm getting a little bored of staying out here, and the others are bound to come outside anytime now."

"Actually, I was planning to take you somewhere after the meeting that's around here, but seeing as how we practically kicked ourselves out, I can just take you now," Grimmjow remembered, taking the lead. A few minutes and a shitload of turns and shortcuts later, we arrived at another set of double doors that looked identical to those of the meeting room.

"Don't tell me we just went in a complete circle and ended up where we started…," I started. Grimmjow half-glared at me. "…I'm taking that as a no?"

"This's a place a hell of a lot interesting than that shithole," Grimmjow grumbled. A strong yank on both of the door's handles and the doors creaked open, revealing a dark and ominous room. I cautiously stepped inside, guiding myself by the walls of the seemingly large area.

Until I…got cut by the wall?

"Ah!" I gasped, clutching my hand. I could feel liquid running down it and knew it was blood. It didn't hurt too much, but it was like an annoying paper cut; it had a certain sting that irritated me to no end and I knew I couldn't do anything about it. Add the fact that it was the same hand I'd punched Nnoitora in the face with and I concluded that my hand didn't have such a bright future ahead of it.

The lights flickered on and I nearly had a heart attack. Hundreds of katana, daggers, spears and other types of weapons I didn't know the names to lined all four walls of the room, the light reflecting off of them and making them glisten. I turned and found myself face to face with a weapon extremely similar to Marechiyo Omaeda's zanpakuto, Gegetsuburi, less than an inch away from my face.

"Heh, you alright?" Grimmjow teased.

"Well, for someone who cut their hand and almost accidentally stabbed their face…I'm pretty good," I responded, taking a step backward from the wall and turning in a full circle, scoping out the size of the room. It had to be at least one hundred feet square.

"You cut your hand?" Grimmjow asked in concern, holding out his palm. I placed my hand on it and he examined it, getting some blood on his own hands as well. "Crap, maybe I shouldn't have surprised you like this, if I'd know that you'd get hurt."

"Don't worry about it," I said. "I just need to wash my hands and wrap it up in a bandage and it'll be like it never happened."

"Still…"

"Grimm, I'm not as delicate as you think."

"…"

"So, why exactly did you bring me here?" I asked, changing the subject. Awkward silences were the one thing I hated. Well, that and Nnoitora.

Not in that order, by the way.

"I just wanted to show you where are weapons are," Grimmjow replied.

"Did you get Pantera from here?"

"H-how did you—"

"There's a lot of things I know," I said mysteriously and mischievously. "And you don't. Now, answer my question, please."

"Oh, yeah," Grimmjow remembered. "Well, um…the espadas didn't get their swords from here. When we defeated our opposites, if you're powerful enough, our opposites turn into our swords when we become arrancars. Most adjuchas don't have that much strength, so they come here and choose a sword afterwards. Then they learn to push their spiritual power until the sword they've chosen merges with their soul."

"So, is that why you guys are called the espada?" I asked. "Because you already had a sword with you when you transformed into an arrancar?"

"I guess so," Grimmjow agreed nonchalantly. "I'm not sure where it originally came from, or who invented the name. Then again, it could've just been Aizen, trying to give us labels."

I found the latter incredibly easier to believe.

"I decided yesterday that…well, if there's ever a time when you have to defend yourself…though, there's not much chance of that happening—"

"Grimmjow, get to the point," I scolded impatiently.

"I want you to pick out a sword to use for yourself."

It suddenly felt like it was Christmas and I was a five-year-old waiting for Santa to arrive.

"Really?" I asked incredulously, glancing excitedly at all the swords. "Any of them?"

"Uh, yeah. I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to, but—"

I was already picking some out.

"Woah, this looks pretty deadly," I remarked sarcastically, carefully holding up a sword that looked like it was made to cut Play-doh, then putting it back. "Who'd use that?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Grimmjow grumbled, his arms crossed. "I didn't have to go through the trouble of doing all this."

"These look sorta cool," I said. I was currently handling some swords that looked like they had been bent in half, like a boomerang. Well, ya never know until ya try, I said to myself. Winding up a bit, I threw a sword and stared at it as it traveled in a perfect circle in the air…then came straight toward me.

"Watch it!" Grimmjow shouted, pushing me out of the way at the last second. I felt the air pound out of my lungs as I made contact with the floor, Grimmjow on top of me. "Geez, think before you do shit like that!"

"S-sorry," I mumbled, sitting up and rubbing my head, eyes screwed shut. My forehead softly pressed against Grimmjow's and my eyes flew open, staring straight into his electric blue ones. "Ah…ha…," I laughed nervously.

"Stupid," Grimmjow murmured, bringing our lips together. I stayed as I was, unresponsive while he did all the work. His tongue slid inside my mouth with ease, mingling with mine. "Hey, what's with you?"

_Damn, am I that obvious?_

"Nothing," I answered expressionlessly, cutting off the kiss and looking away. My eyes grew wide when I saw that I'd completely forgotten about my cut; some blood was still oozing out, even more now that it was being pressed on the floor. "Shit, I should probably clean my hands before they get infected." Grimmjow glanced over at them as well and nodded silently, his expression thoughtful.

"Well, aren't we just comfy?" a mocking voice rang out. We both snapped our heads around and saw Luppi sneering at us. "Why don'tcha just sit in his lap?"

"Shut it, Luppi," Grimmjow growled. I stared at Luppi unwaveringly.

"It's true and ya know it. I mean, look at cha; bet you're thinking about how nice it'd be to have her under ya." My skin flushed red.

"I said, shut it!" Grimmjow repeated, a blush on his face as well. "Nobody fuckin' asked you what you thought about this."

"No one told me to keep my mouth shut," Luppi remarked. Then his eyes grew wide as a dagger landed a few inches away from his face, instead on the wall, pinning part of his clothing to it.

"I'm giving you one damn warning: Don't. Say. Shit." Luppi's eyes narrowed and he yanked the knife out, sonidoing out of the room.

"Tch," Grimmjow said, standing up and holding his hand out so I could pull myself up.

Once we arrived back at my room—scratch that, we went to Grimmjow's room instead— I quickly went into the bathroom and washed my hands, wincing when the cold water made my cut sting a whole lot more than before, but it was better than leaving it to become infected and nasty. I used a small towel to tie it around my hand as a sort of bandage, although it probably wouldn't hold for that long. I walked out of the bathroom and was immediately attacked by Grimmjow's lips, making me sigh inwardly. _Here we go again._

"Are you going to respond to me this time?" Grimmjow inquired between kisses.

"I don't know," I responded. "Should I?" I felt Grimmjow smirk as he pulled me closer to him. His hand rested on the small of my back, the other on my neck as he tilted my head to gain access to my neck, where he left small kisses and nips, then started to suck on a particular spot, the same spot that had me shuddering in pleasure earlier today…

All the events that took place flooded my mind, making me distracted from what was happening at the moment. The disgusted look on Ulquiorra's face followed by the way he reacted, as if everything was fine and he didn't give a shit what Grimmjow and I did. But if that was true, then why was he acting like that while Grimm and I were…

"You okay…?," Grimmjow breathed out, pulling away to look at me. I tried to pull off an embarrassed expression but probably failed by the way Grimmjow was regarding me. "What's going on inside that head of yours?"

"…I was just thinking about what you'd said earlier," I lied, a bit of guilt building up inside me. "That little speech you gave about not wanting me to get hurt? I wasn't expecting that." I smiled when I saw Grimmjow blush.

"W-well, it was true…"

"Thank you," I said, hugging him and burying my face in his chest, hiding my expression of guilt.

"You're welcome," Grimmjow replied. "You wanna go back to your room? It's about time for you to eat."

"Can I stay here?" I asked.

"Um…I don't think that's a good idea…"

"Why not?"

"…I'm not 100% sure that I'm not going to restrain myself from fucking you." My eyes widened and I covered my face in my hands, trying to hide my blush.

"Oh my god…I can't believe you just said that…," I murmured.

"Here; I'm going to your room, getting your food and then coming back here so you can eat here instead, okay? I'll try my hardest not to take advantage of the situation," he smirked, only increasing my blush.

"J-just go, alrea—" Grimmjow cut me off with a quick kiss, then ran out of the room to go get my food.

_Why, that little…_

I sighed and sat down on Grimmjow's bed, grabbed a pillow and hugged it, yawning. I started to think about what he'd just been teasing me about. If it actually came to that…crap, what the hell was I worrying about? If it happened, it happened, and if it didn't, oh well. Actually…very well. I buried my face in the pillow. Just there mere thought of…_that_…wait…

How the hell was the choice of room related to him trying not to fuck me?

"Baaack," Grimmjow's voice interrupted my thoughts as he came in carrying a tray and a glass of water. "Guess what you get to eat today?" My stomach involuntarily growled and I put my arms over it, as if that would muffle the sound.

"Does it matter?" I mumbled as Grimmjow set the tray and drink in front of me. I immediately took a huge gulp of water.

Fortunately, it wasn't boiled.

"You still haven't guessed what you're eating today," Grimmjow reminded me. My response was a shrug.

"Do I have to guess?"

"Yeah."

"…I don't want to, though," I half-whined.

"I'm not going to give you your food if you don't guess."

"You bully!" I complained when Grimmjow retreated the tray of food away from my reach. "But I'm really hungry…"

"Then maybe you should hurry up and guess," Grimmjow suggested with a smirk. I crossed my arms and stuck my tongue out at him, then swirled my tongue in a circle, only making his smirk evolve into his famous grin. "You have no idea how wrong that looked right now."

"Ewww," I commented, a minor disgusted expression on my face. "It only looks wrong because you imagined it like that, you perv."

"I know I am," Grimmjow admitted narcissistically. "Now, guess."

I rolled my eyes. "Rice?"

"Haven't you had enough of that?"

"…No." Grimmjow signed.

"You know, I think that you'd gladly trade me for a grain of rice."

"I wouldn't do that," I replied while laughing.

"Oh, really?" Grimmjow said skeptically.

"Yeah, it would have to be more like a few pounds."

"…"

"You do know I'm joking, right?"

"That's not why I'm quiet, I'm waiting for you to guess."

"I already did," I told him, tapping my forehead in a use-your-damn-brain-for-once way.

"Yeah, but I'm not giving you your food until you guess correctly," Grimmjow added triumphantly, angering me.

"You bastard, you didn't tell me that before," I mumbled. "I just wanna eat, I'm gonna throw a bitch fit if you don't."

"Unfortunately for you," Grimmjow started, grabbing my chin and looking intently at me, "there's only two options here: guess until you get it right, or…" He left the words hanging in mid-sentence, adding to the suspension.

"Or what, Grimmjow?"

"Would you rather eat it from my mouth?" He laughed at me once I turned into a tomato (metaphorically, of course).

"You…why, you…ah, crap, Grimm…" I mumbled into the pillow I was hiding my face in. "Why do you have to say that?"

"Cause I love ya."

There he goes again.

"I'd much rather guess, thank you." I sighed before saying, "Are we back to eating the same old shit as before?" I already knew that I said the wrong thing and should've just said 'food' and outsmart him, even as he unveiled a plate of appetizing…

Mystery meat and gelatin squares.

In short, the same old shit as before.

"…I think my appetite just completely ran away." I facepalmed. The one day I felt like I was starving was when people decided that leftovers weren't the entrées anymore. I picked at the food with the silver fork in my hand, then stabbed a piece of gelatin and started chewing it.

Dear god, I forgot just how horrible this food tasted. I must've turned a bit green because Grimmjow quickly handed me my water and I took a huge gulp, almost downing the whole thing.

"…Uh, are you going to be alright?" Grimmjow asked me, placing a hand on my shoulder. I nodded wordlessly and reluctantly started eating the rest of my food, trying to swallow instead of chew so that the bitter flavor wouldn't completely overtake my taste buds. Fortunately for me, there was a pitcher of water in one of the compartments of the cart. I ended up almost finishing up all the water, silently wishing it was soda or milk instead of water, which didn't substitute the taste of the food very well. I fell back once finished, closing my eyes and slumbering off.

"That…was horrible," I remarked as I curled into a fetal position while Grimmjow took away the tray and set it on the table, then climbed onto the bed. For a second a feeling of dread started to emerge when I thought that he might want to start kissing me again. _Seriously, if he keeps this up I'm just going to get bored of him_, I thought.

Then I felt his body against my back, an arm slipping around my waist and pulling me closer to his body. I relaxed in his arms, smiling contentedly. I tried to contain my yawn but couldn't hold it in and heard Grimmjow chuckle slightly as he watched me yawning. "You sure I can't stay here?" I asked sleepily. I turned around, put both hands on his chest and laid my head down on them, listening to his heartbeat.

"Well…if you really want to, I guess I can't say no," Grimmjow responded, not sounding bothered by it at all. "I'm just not sure if we're going to be sleeping or—"

"Don't say it!" I warned, putting a finger to his lips, already feeling a blush on my cheeks. "Just keeps those thoughts to yourself, 'kay?"

"Heh, fine." We fell into a peaceful silence, enjoying each other's company. I didn't realize I was falling asleep until I heard Grimmjow's distant voice speak into my ear, his breath ghosting across the sensitive skin around my neck. "If you're sleepy I can get the bed sheets ready for you."

"Hmm…yeah, thanks," I said, rubbing my eyes, getting off of the bed and sitting down at a chair near the table while he unfolded the covers. Watching him situate the blankets, pillows and tucking in the corners of the bed sheets, I started nodding off but quickly woke up again when I felt Grimmjow carry me and settle me into the bed, covering me with the blankets and pressing a soft and tender kiss to my forehead before crawling over me and laying down next to me, also under the covers.

"Alexia…"

"I know what you're going to—"

"I love you."

"…I know."

"Just felt like letting you know," Grimmjow said; I could notice a bit of drowsiness in his voice as well as mine. "I'll wake you up, so don't go and take a shower when you wake up unless you remember to take your clothes and a towel." I let out a small giggle at that.

"Yeah, yeah…night." I felt a little uncomfortable about sleeping in the same clothes I'd been wearing all day and not in my pajamas, but it was either 'wear your everyday clothes' or 'take off some clothes and sleep like that, even though Grimmjow is right next to you.'

Obviously the first one was better.

"…"

"Grimmjow?" I asked. I didn't get an answer. I looked and saw that he was already asleep. "Well, someone was sleepy. You sure can hide it, though."

My hands went up to touch his face, outlining his eyes, caressing his cheek and then tracing over his lips. His expression was so much more peaceful in contrast with his facial expression when awake (usually a scowl). All of a sudden, a look of confusion crossed his face and his lips opened a fraction of an inch.

"Alexia…," he said. I smiled warmly. _So he even dreams about me_, I thought. But he wasn't done. "…Who…are you…"

_Eh?_

__9696969696969696969696

Ulquiorra: I did not appear at all in this chapter.

Me: Don't worry, you have the next chapter for that ^_^

Alexia: Since when did Ulqui-cielago care about when he made appearances?

Grimmjow: Seriously -.-

Ulquiorra: T_T Are you going to argue with me?

Alexia and Grimmjow: O.O Ah…no…

Me: (Hugs Ulquiorra) Great, now you made him angry.

Luppi: Hey! What's with my debut? I only appeared for a minute! And you made me look too weak, I'm so much stronger, I could've taken Grimmjow on ~.~ You should really—

Everyone except Luppi: T_T…Get out.

Me: Who the hell invited you into the rant anyways?

Luppi: (Smirks) Me.

Grimmjow: Grind, Pan—

Luppi: S-shit! (Runs away)

Me: Hehe, sorry about that ^_^' Anyways, please review, especially the people who decide to favorite or follow, I really want to hear your opinions! See ya!


	9. I'm seeing a pattern now

Me: Hey guys! Guess what, my power went out on Wednesday!

Alexia: I love how you don't wait for us to actually guess T_T

Me: (Ignores) So, do you know what I was doing for those three hours that my power was out?

Alexia: I don't give a shit.

Grimmjow: Why does it matter?

Ulquiorra: We are not telepathic T_T

Me: -.-' This is exactly why I don't ask you these types of questions. Anyway, I was writing for three hours straight ^_^ It helped that I was super motivated that day, plus I had a great idea while brainstorming.

Grimmjow: Can you just start the chapter already?

Alexia: Yeah, I need to know what's—Uh, your readers need to know what's going to happen next -.-

Me: Ah, so you're growing interested in my fic?

Alexia: -.-'…no…

Me: (Smirks) Well then, I guess I can just abandon the story and—

Ulquiorra: No.

All: O.o

Ulquiorra: Everyone, please read chapter nine…once again, at your leisure.

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**DAY FOUR**

I would have loved to say that I slept like a bear hibernating through the cold winter. I would have really liked to say that I had the most vivid and awesome dream I've ever had in my whole life. And I would have especially liked it if Grimmjow wasn't a person who would move around a lot while sleeping.

But nooo, it just had to be the opposite.

Due to the strange words I'd heard come out of Grimmjow's mouth while he was sleeping, I ended up losing all symptoms of drowsiness and couldn't go to sleep. I tried countless methods of making myself sleepy (yeah, counting some damn sheep, too), and even went to counting backwards from 300 by three as a last resort.

Nothing.

"Damn it," I whispered. "Think, Alexia; what's the most boring and irritating thing you can think of?" I pounded my brain into finding an answer and almost gave up hope. Then it hit me. "Political campaign commercials…"

I was asleep faster than a blink of the eye.

It wasn't long before I was conjuring images from my mind. Strangely, they didn't have much to do with the main events of the day. In fact, they only accounted for the cause of my sleep deprivation.

**_ Grimmjow had an iron grip on my arm. His eyes held anger and fear (I was a bit confused about the latter) and his voice hissed out, "You."_**

**_ "What?" Everything felt so real, even though somewhere in the back of my mind I knew this was a dream. "What are you talking about, Grimmjow?"_**

**_ "How the hell do you know my name!?" He nearly shouted into my face, making me wince. The grip on my arms increased, inflicting more pain._**

**_ "What are you talking about?" I asked nervously, in almost the same volume as he was speaking in. "Grimm, it's me, Alexia!"_**

**_ He let go of me roughly and I collapsed on the floor, me looking in surprise and confusion at him as I slowly started backing away. His bloodthirsty and angered demeanor wasn't disappearing anytime soon, that much I did understand._**

**_ "G-grimm…jow…," I gulped. There weren't any good options; it was either…uh…_**

**_ Actually, there weren't any options at all._**

**_ "You say you're Alexia?" Grimmjow asked skeptically. His right hand was reaching for Pantera and I started to panic, but somehow my fear evolved into cockiness. I stood up and put a hand on my hip._**

**_ "Unless I have short-term memory, yeah. I mean, if I know your name then I should be able to remember mine, right?" He scowled and unsheathed Pantera. I was barely able to dodge his attack. Instead, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up when I heard a whoosh and saw his sword narrowly miss my head. My eyes glanced and saw several long strands of hair on the floor._**

**_ "Who the hell do you think you are!?" Grimmjow exclaimed, stomping toward me again. My blood turned ice-cold and I started to run away, only to crash into Grimmjow as he sonidoed in front of me. "Who are you?" he repeated. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion._**

**_ "You…you should know," I murmured, taking a step away from him and looking him in the eyes. "Why can't you remember, Grimmjow? I'm Alexia, you and I are—" I yelped when Grimmjow's sword pointed at my neck._**

**_ "I don't know you," Grimmjow whispered, so quietly that I wouldn't have been able to hear it if the atmosphere around us wasn't dead silent. The sword's tip neared my neck even more. I couldn't move, even though I knew I should've been running a mile a minute away from him. My heartbeat pounded in my ears._**

**_ "Yes, you do," I tried to remind him. My hands shaking, I gently pushed Pantera away from my neck and stepped closer to him, making him a bit uncomfortable. "Look me in the eyes and tell me that you don't know me."_**

**_ "I don't."_**

**_ Well, that was unexpected._**

**_ I was at loss of words. I didn't think he would respond so quickly, let alone so firmly and confident-like. Suddenly, I was pushed away by a now angered Grimmjow. My resolve dissolved completely when I saw the steel grip he had on Pantera._**

**_ "Alexia, who are you?" Grimmjow stated more than asked. "I sure as hell don't know, so maybe I won't need to figure it out if I kill you."_**

**_ "What!?" I exclaimed jumping away even more. "What kind of logic is that!?"_**

**_ "My logic."_**

**Oh, that's right. I forgot.**

**_ Well, that was what I wanted to say, but of course I wasn't going to say it out loud…_**

**_ "What was that?" Grimmjow asked, making me confused. Then realization dawned._**

**Crap, I ****_did_**** say that out loud!**

**_ "I-i wasn't planning on voicing my thoughts—" I was cut off once again as Grimmjow punched me right in the center of my chest, knocking the wind out of me. That wasn't what had me so angered that I got up again almost immediately and pushed him onto the floor. "Can I fucking finish my sentence!? I was going to apologize, but if you're going to—agh!"_**

**_ "No, you can't finish your fucking sentence," Grimmjow hissed out, our positions now reversed. He was holding me down by my shoulders and straddling my hips, rendering me unable to move. I felt Pantera at my neck again and my breathing turned erratic as I struggled to get out of his grasp. The pressure on my neck increased. "I don't have time to remember who you are."_**

**_ "Don't…please stop this, Grimmjow," I whispered, fake tears at the corners of my eyes. For a split second I felt the pressure decrease and interpreted the opportunity as weakness on his behalf. "Grimmjow, please try to remember."_**

**_ "I can't," he replied angrily._**

**_ "You can. Just try to, and if you can't—no matter how hard you attempt to— then you can kill me. But at least try, Grimm." I watched him carefully. The grip on Pantera was decreasing by the second and his expression was going from angry to frustrated. He retreated his sword from my neck slightly._**

**Now!**

**_ I harshly pushed him off and picked myself up, breaking into a run. It was them that I surveyed my surroundings; it looked exactly like Grimmjow's room. _****What if this isn't a dream?****_ I thought, fear crawling up my spine. All at once, I felt a hand grab my by the hair and yank me around, making me yell in surprise._**

**_ "You're not getting away," Grimmjow said as he slammed me into the wall. Pain shot up my back at the contact. My tears, before used as a means for distracting Grimmjow, now fell freely from my face._**

**_ "Grimmjow, don't…"_**

**_ I let out a blood-curdling scream when I felt Grimmjow's sword pierce through the center of my ribcage, stabbing my heart with effortless precision._**

I shot up from the bed, panting heavily. _What in the fuck was that?_ I thought, taking some deep breaths and massaging my temples. The images were still there, every second of the dream engraved in my brain. I could feel my heart, beating so fast that I thought it would jump right out of my chest. My eyes glanced over at Grimmjow, who was sleeping and looked as cozy as a—

Well, a cat. Or some sort of feline.

"Damn, stupid imagination…," I whined, getting out of bed and stumbling into Grimm's bathroom. Fumbling for the light switch and then squinting my eyes when the light turned on, I went over to the sink and leaned on it, looking at myself in the mirror.

Were those…tears?

I traced the trail of dried tears, wondering how I could've even noticed them since they were too faint for someone to tell they were there unless they were looking closely. They faded as I splashed my face with water from the faucet of the sink, trying to accomplish two things: wash away the tears and wake myself up. Fortunately, the water was cold as hell and definitely woke me up, seeing as how I almost yelled in surprise as the liquid hit my face.

I stared at myself in the mirror after I dried off my face with a towel. That didn't hadn't made any sense whatsoever…just from four simple words, I had managed to come up with that whole ordeal of nearly traumatizing events. _Damn you, Grimmjow_, I told myself. _If you hadn't said those words I'd be sleeping right now and not having dreams of you killing me_. I turned and left, flopping down on the bed and burying my face in my pillow.

My head turned a little to peek over at Grimmjow—or rather, Grimmjow's foot?

_What the fuck?_

I sat up and made sure that I was lying down right. He obviously wasn't, but I was trying to figure out how he could've completely moved around to have his head where his feet should've been and his feet resting on the pillow. Then deciding it wasn't important, I focused on the current task of going to sleep. _Eh, I guess it doesn't really matter,_ I told myself.

It definitely mattered when said feet collided with my face, snapping me out of my half-asleep stupor.

"What the hell!" I said, grabbing my nose which was probably bleeding now. Were Grimmjow's feet made of steel or something? I tried to go back to sleep but this time was kneed in the back, damn near making me shout in pain and frustration. I grew even more annoyed when I felt arms wrap around my calves and make me unable to move. "And you think _I'm_ crazy as fuck."

Once his grip loosened, I was able to kick his arms off and go into the bathroom to inspect my nose, which surprisingly didn't have any traces of damage. But I could feel some pain when I rubbed it, so I decided to leave it alone. I was almost out the door and—

_Oh my god, is that a hot tub?_

I walked over in a daze, inspecting it. If it wasn't a hot tub/jacuzzi, I didn't know what it was. What I did know was that I was in need of relaxation, and in my opinion a hot bath was the best way to do that.

A few minutes later, I was pampering myself to the fullest when I realized that I didn't have any clothes to change into. _Damn. I should think before doing these kinds of things_. Sighing, I cautiously stepped out of hot tub (seriously pissed that I didn't even spend half an hour in it) and, spotting a rack of robes, slid on one of them. The softness of the robe made me want to never take it off—and considering that I didn't have any clothes to put on, I'd probably have to keep it on for a while anyways.

An idea suddenly hit me. It was pretty strange for me to think of doing that, but the look on Grimm's face…I couldn't resist. **[Warning: Whatever you think is about to happen…it's not :P]**

I slipped on my sandals and quietly stepped out of the bathroom, though I doubted Grimmjow would wake up that easily. The clothes in his closet were definitely too big for me, but they'd have to do…I decided that wearing the same shirt for a few more hours wasn't going to kill me and slipped on my lingerie and long-sleeved blue shirt, then took one of Grimmjow's vests and slipped it on. I then proceeded to put on one of Grimmjow's hakama, extremely grateful that the blue shirt was long enough to cover the sides of my hips (I was especially grateful that Grimmjow didn't have the same sense of style as Luppi or Charlotte). I chuckled when I saw myself in a body mirror across the room; I wondered how Grimmjow would react to me wearing his clothes.

A loud yawn filled the silence in the room, startling me slightly. My head snapped around to see Grimmjow slowly rising to a sitting position on his bed and rubbing his eyes. I quickly removed my sandals and tiptoed next to the bed right next to him, waiting for him to open his eyes and see me.

What I didn't expect was for him to fall back onto the bed again and snooze for a little while longer, his back to me as his breathing steadied out. _He…completely ignored me_, I thought. _He's something else when he sleeps._

"Yo, Grimm," I poked his shoulder repeatedly. "Wake up…" I'm not sure if it was on instinct or not, but his hand flew up and slapped my hand away.

Switch to pissed-off mode.

"Grimmjow Jeagerjaques!" I shouted, punching his shoulder. His eyes snapped open and peered at me. "Get your ass up!"

"…What's with that getup?" Grimmjow mumbled, lazily pointing to my clothes. Then Grimmjow's eyes widened and he sat up so fast that our foreheads bumped—not even a soft bump, more like a bumper-car bump— and both of us were clutching our heads. I knew that Grimmjow would be surprised by my appearance, but not to this extent. "W-why are you wearing my c-clothes!?"

I shrugged, inwardly smirking. "Just felt like it. Why, is there a problem?" Noticing the pinkish tint on his cheeks, I hesitantly reached out and caressed his cheek, smiling when his blush grew. "I'm taking that as a…"

"No," I let him finish my sentence. He smirked as he grabbed the front of the vest I was wearing and pulled me onto the bed, under him as he connected our mouths in a heated kiss. I felt myself completely giving in as I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled myself closer to him. Our tongues fought, me eventually succumbing and letting him take control. His hands were at my waist, then on the sides of my face. They stopped at his vest (well, the one I was wearing) and starting to take it off. At this point my mind was somewhere in La La Land as Grimmjow planted kisses on my neck while doing so.

"Grimm…," I half-moaned. I won't give in, I thought. Not yet. I can't… "Ahaha!" My hand immediately flew up to cover my mouth in embarrassment. "What are you doing?"

Grimmjow stopped what he was doing to grin at me. "Didya like that?" I attempted to look at my position and realized that Grimmjow was rubbing circles on my stomach, as if massaging. Of course, I wasn't going to tell him that my stomach was my ticklish spot (at least, one of them). Ignoring his question, I reminded him of what he was supposed to be doing by kissing him.

** 'What the hell are you doing?'**

_Perfect timing, I see,_ I answered briskly, trying to get back to what I was doing. But that woman's voice wasn't disappearing anytime soon.

** 'I'll ask you again; what the hell do you think you're doing?'**

_ I think you can figure that out for yourself, don't you think?_

"Alexia," Grimmjow hummed as his hands treated through my hair and brought us together in a kiss.

_Just stay out of this, alright? I don't know who you are anyways, so why should I listen to you?_

I heard her sigh.** 'What happened to your IQ of 131? You should be able to figure out why I'm here. You should've also known by now that you can tune me out at any time you wish to, such as—'**

_Thanks_.

"You're distracted," Grimmjow observed, looking at me quizzically. I shook my head halfheartedly. He obviously wasn't buying it.

"Don't worry," I assured him. He was inwardly debating whether or not to let it go for now (his expressions were way too obvious) and I started to kiss him again to distract him. He sighed into the kiss and responded. Suddenly, I felt friction on my hips and gasped. "S-shit, don't do that."

"Why not?" Grimmjow whispered into my ear, lightly nipping on it. I bit my lip, trying to hold back a small whine threatening to escape my lips.

"You're making me…," I didn't know how to describe what I was feeling. _Lustful?_ Pretty close, but it wasn't as intense. _Embarrassed? Anxious? Nervous?_ "I don't know." Feeling Grimmjow's hand traveling down my spine and lifting me up against him, I instinctively wrapped a leg around one of his, immediately regretting it because of the mischievous look in his eyes. I could feel myself shrinking in embarrassment (mentally, anyways).

"Alexia…I want to—"

"Grimmy! Are ya awake?" Gin's voice rang out, surprising both of us. I pushed Grimmjow away from me and he let out a shout as he fell off of the bed and onto the floor. I didn't have time to apologize as I threw the covers over my head, hoping I was slender enough to not notice. Grimmjow's bed sheets weren't that thin either, so if I remained still Gin probably wouldn't find me.

"Eh, wha happened ta ya, Grimmy? Didya have a bad dream?"

"Shut it, fox face!" Grimmjow exclaimed. "I just move around a lot, I can't fucking help it!"

"…D'ya wan' me ta sing a lul'by for ya, Grimmy?"

"HELL NO!" Trying to suppress your laugh at that time was a damn hard task to accomplish.

"Ne, Grimmy, did'yer bed sheets just giggle?"

_Fuck_.

Laughing nervously as the sheets were moved to reveal me hiding under them, I said, "Uh…morning, Gin." The atmosphere turned a bit awkward.

Ok, really awkward.

"Yer wearin' Grimm-chan's clothes?" Gin asked curiously. I nodded, averting my gaze from his and sitting up(Was it even a gaze? It's not like his eyes were open that much). "So…Grimm, yer inta this kinda stuff?"

"Like hell!" Grimmjow objected. "I just woke up and she was like that…"

"I didn't have any clothes to change into…," I started to explain. My hands fiddled as I tried to come up with a good explanation. "So I decided to borrow Grimmjow's instead of going to my room."

"Ah, speakin' o' clothes, Aizen wanted me ta tell ya tha' ya should have yer own espada uniform," Gin remembered. I pointed to myself in confusion and Gin nodded.

"Um…might I ask why?" I asked.

"I guess it's fer some sorta symbol tha' yer one o' us, ya know?"

"I suppose…"

"Hey, Gin," Grimmjow called his attention. "Is there any way to tell the time around here?"

"Well, I 'ave my watch, so no worries there, but da two of ya definit'ly don't," Gin started. He pulled up the right sleeve of his outfit to reveal an incredibly expensive-looking watch, which Grimmjow and I stared in awe at. "I don' really need it, though, so ya can 'ave it."

"Really?" I asked incredulously, watching as Gin took off the watch and then put it on my wrist. He grinned a little wider and nodded. An uneasy feeling settled somewhere deep in me, making me wonder if I should just take it. "Thanks, Gin."

"Yer welcome," was his reply as he turned around and left the room. Before disappearing from sight he said, "I hope ya consider da change of attire, A~lex. Bye-bye!"

"Whatever," Grimmjow mumbled, earning himself a smack upside the head.

"See you later, Gin," I corrected for the sake of both Grimmjow and I, although Grimmjow was the one who'd been impudent. A few moments later, Grimmjow and I were alone again.

"Well, he definitely killed the mood," Grimmjow said.

"When was there a mood to begin with?" I asked, rolling my eyes. They widened when Grimmjow kissed me without warning.

"That's gonna have to do for now," he consented, my hand flying up to my face, trying to hide my blush.

"Well, seeing as how it's—" I glanced at the clock on my wrist, "—8:47, shouldn't we be on our way to…Ulqui-cielago's?" I ended with a yawn.

"Ulqui-cielago's?" Grimmjow repeated. _Oops_.

"Uh, that's his nickname, I gave it to him when I first arrived here," I explained, glaring when I saw a bit of anger on Grimmjow's face. "Don't look at me like that, I gave you one too, Kit-Kat."

"Tch, and here I was, thinking that I was special."

_Woooow_.

"You obviously are special," I countered, a hand on my hip. "It's a miracle I've been able to stand your attitudes."

"Ah, shut up," he grinned, pulling me into a kiss before retreating and saying, "by the way, how'd you sleep?"

"…" _If you only knew_. "It was okay, I guess. Nothing special."

"I dreamt about you."

Obviously. "Really? That's…nice," I yawned again.

"You sure you slept alright? Sorta looks like you're still drowsy," he noticed. Wordlessly, I nodded. Suddenly, I was pushed down onto the bed and the covers were up to my chin, as if I was in a chrysalis. "We still have some time, go to sleep."

"…Thanks," I murmured, snuggling in and falling into a more peaceful state of mind as Grimmjow cuddled in with me. For a moment I considered asking him about his dream, but decided against it before falling asleep.

**30 MINUTES LATER**

"…Do I have to?" I asked, pulling the covers over my head.

"Yeah, unless you want something to happen to Ulqui—well…that escalated quickly."

"…Shut it." I reluctantly sat up and rubbed my eyes, not completely satisfactory with the amount of sleep I got. _Oh well_, I thought. _It's better than nothing._ "You know, your clothes are actually extremely comfortable. I would keep these as my pajamas, 'cept that I already got some from that store."

Grimmjow hoisted me out of the bed and I put on my sandals. It was a relatively quick walk to Ulquiorra's room, seeing as how I was in Grimmjow's instead of mine. "See you in an hour?" Grimmjow asked.

"Mhmm."

"Oh, and before I forget…"

"Wha—mm." I should've seen that one coming. The kiss lingered for a bit longer than usual and I felt a bit awkward. I was the one to pull away, giving him a quick hug before hauling the cart inside.

Ulquiorra…was officially the most adorable thing when asleep. Or when he was feigning sleep, whichever it was. I made sure to be quiet in case he _was_ asleep so I could enjoy his peaceful expression. Then I saw him move a little bit and let out a yawn.

Oh god, could it get any cuter?

Wait, what the hell was I thinking?

I shook myself out of my thoughts and gently pushed Ulquiorra's shoulder. His brows furrowed a bit before his eyes slowly opened, revealing hazy eyes still heavy with lethargy. "Hey there, Ulqui-cielago."

"Good…morning," he replied monotonously, closing his eyes again. I sweat dropped when I realized that he'd fallen asleep again. I heard a small gasp and Ulquiorra's eyes snapped open again.

"Still sleepy?" I asked mockingly.

"It seems so, although I slept a great deal of time yesterday."

"How long?"

"Thirteen hours," he responded. I wasn't all that impressed—scratch that, I was jealous that Ulquiorra had gained all the sleep that I lost. When I gave Ulquiorra his medications, he almost lost his grip on the glass of water I'd handed to him, leading me to hold them for him again as he slowly consumed his pills.

"You seem really…slow today," I noticed. He simply stared at me, making me unable to know what he was trying to tell me. "Seriously, you're acting more indifferent than usual."

"I suppose that is most likely because I have just woken up," he defended. "Would you mind giving me the water now?" He shook his head when I held the glass out for him to take. "I meant for you to actually hold the glass to my lips and serve it to me."

I blushed a little at that. "A-are you being legitimate?" I asked, becoming nervous when he nodded in confirmation. Hesitantly, I brung the glass up to his lips cautiously, as if he was going to try and bite my hand off. I tilted the glass and watched as the water went into Ulquiorra's mouth and down his throat when he swallowed. Probably a little too closely, because right after Ulquiorra had finished the water he stared at me quizzically.

"Is there something intriguing about me consuming a liquid?"

"Eh? Oh…no!" I rejected his idea, waving my free hand in front of me furiously. He probably thought I was being too exaggerated but decided to let it slip this one time. He stared at the ceiling of his room, spacing off and into deep thought. "Um, Ulqui-cielago…how are you feeling?"

"Why do you wish to know?" he asked. I shrugged in response. "I am the same as before; I cannot tell if I am physically feeling better but I do know that I am one day closer to being able to get out of this place, so I am somewhat grateful."

"Oh, ok," I replied nonchalantly, getting up and heading to Ulquiorra's bookshelf and picking out one of the books, Kissed by an Angel by Elizabeth Chandler. I remembered reading this book when I was in sixth grade.. I didn't notice I was starting to doze off in Ulquiorra's chair until I heard his voice calling out to me loudly. "Huh?" _Oh, real smart, Alexia_.

"If you wish to sleep, you may lay here," he signaled the bed. I shook my head so hard I thought it might've fallen off. "I was only suggesting it, seeing as how I cannot wake you up the same way you wake me."

Thinking about it for a second I thought, it's not anything bad. It's like accidentally falling asleep next to someone you might secretly love on a train…

_Stupid, that only happens in anime and manga. Ah, fuck it._

I made my way over to the bed and laid down. My brows furrowed in confusion when, below my head, I felt something cushioning my head. Sitting up, my face became red when I realized that my head had practically been in Ulquiorra's lap. _Damn it, I need to watch what I'm doing._

"Sorry…" I didn't make eye contact with him, but I could feel him staring at me as if he was trying to burn a hole through me. Since his bed was pushed up against the wall, I supported my back by leaning on the wall and pulled my knees up to my chest, wrapped my arms around my knees, and sighed.

"It is quite alright," he murmured. Our eyes met and I wondered how Ulquiorra could pull of that sleepy look for so long. "Although…what exactly are you apologizing for?" I facepalmed.

"It's nothing," I mumbled, my eyes starting to close on their own. "Don't…worry about it."

I wasn't sure how much time had passed but was keenly aware of two people conversing some time later.

"I need to take her to Szayel!"

"That is not necessary, Jeagerjaques."

"Like hell it isn't! Wake her up!"

"Can you not do that yourself?"

"Tch! And you can't?"

"Alright."

I felt pressure on my shoulder and snapped my eyes open. A hand was on my left shoulder, a pale one with pure black fingernails. I looked up and met emerald eyes.

Which were soon replaced by blue ones, along with blue hair.

"Hey, are you okay?" Grimmjow asked worriedly. I looked at him in confusion. "It's been four hours since you came in here."

"…Oh," was all I could come up with, since I still seemed to be half asleep.

"I thought that you might've…," Grimmjow started.

"Fallen into a coma?" I could've sworn that I saw him cringe.

"Yeah."

"I wasn't told of this," Ulquiorra's voice said (because I couldn't exactly see him with Grimmjow's head in the way). I motioned for Grimmjow to move over so I could see Ulquiorra. "You fell into a coma?"

"N-not exactly, but—"

"Yeah, and it was partially your fault," Grimmjow interrupted.

"G-grimm!" I mentally scolded myself for stuttering.

"But it's true, isn't it?" he said. "If Ulquiorra had remembered that that water had his medicine in it, he could've told you to stop before you drank it, meaning you wouldn't have fallen into a near comatose state. And I wouldn't have started to freak out when I saw you asleep right now." Ulquiorra and I remained silent.

"So, you think that I meant to intentionally hurt her?" Ulquiorra said a few seconds later. In disbelief, I let out a small gasp. "If you think so, please explain what my motives are, since you seem to know everything about me."

"Don't get your panties in a bunch, Schiffer," Grimmjow shot back. The tension in the room increased by tenfold. Ulquiorra had his usually stoic face, whereas Grimmjow's was expressing every bit of anger he had in him.

"I would prefer it if you would not say stupid and idiotic things such as that, Sexta."

"It takes one to know one." Damn, I desperately wanted them to stop, but I didn't really know how I was going to go about doing that. _'Hey guys, why not just call it a day and you can try to kill each other verbally tomorrow?'_

Not happening.

"It also takes an idiot to acknowledge that they're just as idiotic as they think," Ulquiorra stated nonchalantly.

"Look who's talking." I didn't know if Grimmjow noticed it, but I saw anger quickly appear on Ulquiorra's face before he remembered that he was supposedly the 'cold' espada, although I knew otherwise, and reverted his expression to the same stare.

"If I am an idiot, it's no wonder you hang around me so much."

"Fuck you."

"I would recommend that you not do that unless you want to get killed." I blanched for a second. _Holy shit, he knew what that meant?_

Apparently Grimmjow was surprised as well, since he was blushing insanely.

"T-that's not what I—"

"I know, which is why I am trying to send you a message: think about what you are about to say before it slips out of your stupid mouth so that you do not regret it." Grimmjow scowled.

"Shut up, Ulquiorra."

"Trash."

In the span of a second, Grimmjow's hand was around Ulquiorra's throat, pushing him against the headboard of his bed. Ulquiorra's expression was indifferent except for the small struggle he was making to not show weakness. I tried to pull Grimmjow away but was obviously too weak.

"Grimmjow! Let him go, you know that—"

"What I do know is that this bastard needs to learn that I'm not a stupid piece of garbage," Grimmjow hissed, not paying attention to what I was trying to tell him.

"How pitiful…," Ulquiorra started, and I frantically motioned my index finger across my neck, telling him to stop before things got too it of hand. How he could talk while being choked was beyond my comprehension, but I knew that this was taking its strain on him on the inside. "That you refuse to believe the facts and instead illusion yourself by thinking you are actually worth something."

_Shit…_

Time stopped as Grimmjow glared at Ulquiorra, Ulquiorra casually stared at me and I took in the whole scene with large, horrified eyes. Then Grimmjow scowled and let go of Ulquiorra, giving him a final shove before retreating and getting off of the bed. I was pulled off roughly and dragged out of the room by Grimmjow, not giving me a chance to spare a glance at Ulquiorra.

"…" I silently watched Grimmjow, who was pacing back and forth, fists clenched at his sides. Deciding that it would be best to keep quiet for the time being, I stopped his movements by blocking his path, a hand on his chest.

"Alexia." From the look in his eyes, I could tell that what Ulquiorra had said had really gotten to him. The question was why. "I swear, if you weren't there I probably would've killed him and—"

"No, you wouldn't," I interrupted. He looked at me quizzically. "You're not like that."

His eyes narrowed. "How do you know that?"

"An example: would you fight a person whom you want to defeat if they already have injuries? Would you stand by and let them die?" Grimmjow's eyes widened in surprise. Although he didn't know it, I was making a reference to Grimmjow's future fight with Ichigo. "You wouldn't, I know it."

"You…" Grimmjow smirked and some of the tension eased down. "I didn't know that I was so obvious to the point where you're readin' me like a book."

I winked and said, "I know a lot more than you think."

"Uh, you know…we're leaving pretty soon," he hinted, scratching the back of his head. When I checked my watch (it was sort of strange to think of it as 'my' watch, seeing as how it was technically Gin's) I discovered that it was 1:43 p.m., which meant that I really had been asleep for about four hours.

And I thought that Grimmjow had been exaggerating.

"I'm guessing that you're going to say bye to Ulquiorra right about now?" I nodded and cleared my throat, turned my back on Grimmjow and went back inside Ulquiorra's room.

The first thing I noticed was the fact that Ulquiorra wasn't sitting upright, back straight against the pillow like usual. Come to think of it, he wasn't like that when I first arrived here, either; but I _had_ found him asleep. It was easy to spot where Ulquiorra was now, since black hair hiding among white bed sheets wasn't what I would call camouflage.

"Ulquiorra," I called out, sitting at the edge of the bed.

"…Mm."

"I'm leaving."

"…Hm."

"I'll see you tomorrow."

"…"

I sighed, poking his shoulder. "The least you could do is say bye."

"Goodbye." I crawled around him and onto the other side of the bed to get a view of his face. He unintentionally moved closer to side I was on. I couldn't do anything to stop our noses from brushing together. His eyes immediately flew open. "Why are you still here, woman?"

"Er, I…um…," I stuttered, leaning away from him with a gigantic blush on my face. "S-sorry." My blush deepened when Ulquiorra remained silent and stared at me intently. I hastily got off of the bed, ran over to the door and gave a small wave before running out and slamming the door behind me.

"You alright?" Grimmjow's voice boomed in my ear (at least, that's how it sounded) and made me nearly jump out of my skin. "What the hell's with you, your face looks like a cherry."

"N-nothing!" I said, a little too quickly. Trying to change the subject I said, "Would you mind if we went to Szayel's lab? I wanna go see the snat."

"Again with that thing?" I saw him pale a bit when I glared at him murderously. "Okay, the snack."

"Snat."

"Whatever."

"Well, can we?" I prodded, taking Grimmjow's hands and pulling him away, hopefully in the direction of Szayel's lab. "Please?" I pouted a little (almost impossible to notice unless you were paying attention, which Grimmjow definitely was) and made my eyes noticeably bigger, my head inclined forward a bit.

Satisfied with the reaction I was getting, which was Grimmjow blushing, I inwardly grinned. "F-fine, but not for long."

I smiled genuinely. "Thanks!" I hugged him warmly, earning a kiss from him without warning yet again. As we walked to the lab, I drifted off into deep thought.

Ulquiorra was without a doubt acting out of character; but something was telling me that there was more to it than that. It was more like the out of character _things_ he was doing…so:

Day one: Ulquiorra admits to being envious of humans for their ability to freely express themselves and not have to worry about a person inside them trying to take them over.

Day two: Nothing. I didn't have time to converse with him.

Day three: Ulquiorra feels exasperated (I think he does) of the fact that he's currently immobile and therefore covets for the freedom of those around him for not having to go through what he is going through.

Day four (today): …

It wasn't as obvious as the other days. He had been lazy today—not lazy enough to avoid a verbal fight with Grimmjow, but still pretty lazy as to not wake up that easily. Come to think of it, he was about as slow as a slo—

Sloth…covet…envy…it all connected, and if I was right… Ulquiorra was going through the seven deadly sins?

I became aware of a hand on my hip, taking me out of my trance. "We're here. Geez I thought you'd be jumping in excitement by now."

"Sorry to disappoint you," I remarked as we entered the lab, who's doors opened automatically. From that I inferred that Szayel had probably known that we were going to visit today. Thankfully, we didn't have to wonder where we were going; we took the same path as when I came here for the first time.

"_Nya_?" _Ohmygodshe'ssocuuuuuuuute_! There was a happy aura surrounding my form as I greeted her with an ecstatic wave of my hand.

"Morning!" I greeted.

We stayed there for a few minutes, me admiring the perfection of the snat and cats overall. A few minutes later Szayel arrived and let the snat out of her case, letting me pet her.

It was evident that the snat didn't like Grimmjow when it almost clawed his eye out, which made Grimmjow go after it like a lion chasing an antelope.

"So, have you given it a name yet?" Szayel asked me casually. A shrug was my answer.

"I didn't really think that it was important for it to have one. If I do come up with one, I think it should be at the perfect moment, and it has to fit her perfectly," I elaborated. Szayel nodded in agreement. Clearing my throat, I stood up and said my goodbyes to Szayel and the snat before returning to my room.

"Oh, Alexia," Szayel called out a second before I left.

"Yes?"

"That's an interesting change of clothes, there." I blushed and nodded, trying to hide my face from view.

The rest of the day passed relatively fast, probably because I was pretty much in deep thought for the majority of the time. I noticed that Grimmjow was keeping his distance from me. What I wanted to know was why; was it because of his dream, or was he just realizing what personal space really meant? I was desperately hoping it was the latter.

Then there was still the matter of Ulquiorra. I had thought about what the seven sins were before I went and thought about it further. _So_, I thought, _there's envy, covetousness, wrath, sloth, pride, greed…crap, what was the other one…?_

_ Oh, right. Lust, how could I forget that when it was the title of volume 40 of Bleach, which had Ulquiorra on the cover and—_

_ Wait, lust!?_

I found it excruciatingly hard to imagine Ulquiorra with a lustful persona.

While Grimmjow had decided to take a shower, I took advantage of the situation and changed into a set of pajamas that were about as soft as a feather. I sighed and pulled the covers back, then snuggled into them and almost fell asleep if not for Grimmjow coming out of the bathroom at the exact moment I was about to black out.

"Yo, are ya awake?" Grimmjow asked softly.

"No, I'm still asleep, dumbass."

Grimmjow let out a small chuckle, then pressed a kiss on my lips before saying, "I can't stay here tonight, but I'll be here first thing in the morning, I promise."

"Thanks," I said, smiling warmly at him before pulling him into a hug, burying my face in his neck. A flicker of curiosity creeped up inside me. _That dream…should I tell him about it?_ "Hey, Grimmjow…"

"What is it?" I stared at him intently while he threaded his hand through my hair. Damn, how was I supposed to ask him?_ 'Grimmjow, do you know who I am? And if you don't, do you have intentions of killing me?'_

Yeah, because that was definitely the smart way to go about it.

"…Sweet dreams, Grimm." He smiled warmly, but I saw the small amount of sadness/doubt cross his face. He kissed my forehead and left, but not before saying:

"I love you, Alexia."

_Yeah, but do you know me?_

o0Oo0Oo0Oo0Oo0Oo0O

Me: Yaaaaaaay ^_^

Grimmjow: What was I dreaming about?

Me: You'll find out later on ;D

Ulquiorra: How dare he lay his hands on me like that T_T

Alexia: Yeah, you were being too harsh -.-

Grimmjow: It wasn't me, it was her! (Points at me)

Me: But you were the one who did it (Smirks)

Grimmjow: That smirk only proves that it was you!

Me: Everyone, don't forget to review ^_^

Grimmjow: Hey, don't fuckin' ignore me!

Szayel: ~.~ I didn't get to appear too much in this chapter…


	10. What's with this emotional shit?

Me: There are several things I forgot to say in the last chapter -.-'

Alexia: Seriously T_T

Grimmjow: To start off: She posted a poll and hasn't told anyone about it, and so far only two people have voted (shakes head in disbelief).

Me: Sorry…oh, I've reached my next benchmark of 25 reviews!

Alexia: It's been two weeks since that happened (raises eyebrow).

Me: T-T But they didn't know that…

Ulquiorra: She wants to thank the people who have helped her reach that benchmark: **Xplosion, Bonnie Fritz, shadowoftheblackdeat, FightTheNight, KillingDesire, koalakrazykarla88910, rebecca27, Silver-Moon-Light94**, and **Phantom-Cosplayer** for helping her out this time. There was also one anonymous person who reviewed, as well.

Gin: She wan's ta give a special thanks ta shadoadablackdet—

Me: -.-' shadowoftheblackdeat. Yeah, I really want to put her in the spotlight for writing such fun reviews ^_^ And giving me cookies. Lots of cookies…

Alexia: Now, the moment you've all been waiting for…

Grimmjow: As a reward for reviewing…

Ulquiorra: Those who have reviewed…

Gin: GET TA WEAR GRIMM-CHAN'S CLOTHES!

(Silence)

Alexia: Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahah a—

Grimmjow: Ò.Ó Shut up, it's not funny! You—(points at me)—why!?

Me: ^_^ Cause I wanted to.

Grimmjow: B-but—

Alexia: It can't be that bad (smirks).

Grimmjow: Uh, I—

Ulquiorra: It will be over as soon as it started.

Grimmjow: But I'm—

Gin: (^-^)/ I get ta try 'em on first!

Grimmjow: …Oh, hell no.

Me: ^_^ Enjoy the tenth, everyone~

**DAY FIVE**

After a morning full of suspense, drama and tension, I was ready to tackle any problem that dared to cross my path.

In other words, I had a typical morning as usual. Which was starting to piss me off.

"Hey, what have you been doing for the past 347 years?" I asked Grimmjow as we walked towards Ulquiorra's room. "I've only been here for about two weeks and I'm already getting tired of our routine." Grimmjow seemed to be in the same predicament; he was clearly annoyed about something, although I didn't know for sure if that was because of our schedule or something else.

"Well, I would say that I was a normal hollow for about 150 years…then tranformed into an adjuchas for a hundred years and then met Aizen in the last 100. You don't have Aizen giving you orders 24/7, so it's logical that you'd be bored." His answer didn't satisfy me in the least.

"Aizen's missions can't possibly take up all of your time, you know. What about after you finish those missions?"

"Well…I take naps a lot," he said hesitantly, averting his gaze from me in embarrassment.

"Go figure," I smirked. "You're a lot like a cat."

"No, I'm not."

"Your resurrección form means panther."

"…So?"

"You purr."

"…"

"I like how you're not denying it," I remarked, laughing when he opened his mouth to answer but couldn't think of anything to say.

"We're here," Grimmjow said, changing the subject. He had a scowl on his face but I could see a smirk begging to appear. "Oh yeah, before I forget—" I gasped as he pushed me against him and kissed me, his tongue invading my mouth for a second before he pulled away, leaving me outside the door as he went back to his room.

"Bastard…," I grumbled as I entered Ulquiorra's room, sighing loudly._ I tried to tell him, but he just couldn't resist, could he?_

Let's go back a bit, shall we?

**_ "Yo, Grimm," I called out from the bathroom door as I brushed my hair. His head immediately popped out from the side of the door as if he was waiting for the moment I'd call him. I wouldn't be surprised if he was._**

**_ "Yeah, what is it?" he asked in return._**

**_ "Uh, I was thinking, and…," I sighed and closed my eyes for a second. "About us…"_**

**_ A confused look crossed Grimmjow's face. "What about us? Is there something wrong? Did something happen?"_**

**_ "Chill, Grimmjow. It's not really…," I couldn't word my sentence because what I wanted to say was, 'Well, you did kill me in a dream of mine…'_**

**_ "With that look you have, it is important," he replied. Looking in the mirror, I saw that I had a sort of sad puppy face, which I quickly changed to a neutral expression._**

**_ "I think that we should maintain a distance from each other," I hastily said, averting my eyes from his form. I suddenly felt his hands on my shoulders; one of them grabbed my chin and turned my face in his direction. "Don't take this the wrong way…I'm not saying that our relationship is over." I saw him loosen up a bit when I said that. He could tell that there was a 'but' quote coming in, though._**

**_ "…But…?"_**

**_ "But I think we've been escalating at a pretty fast rate; I want to slow down a bit. Just holding hands and pecks on the cheek…perhaps…?" It was awkward to ask what I wanted from him physically._**

**_ To be honest, I was getting a little fed up with the concept of Grimmjow and I. He was making me feel even more guilty than I had originally been at the beginning of our relationship. I couldn't forget the fact that we'd started doing this because I'd succumbed out of pity. Hence, I didn't feel the reality of his lo—_**

**_ Wait. I obviously did, as if the kisses he gave me weren't enough. But that was besides the point._**

**_ I still noticed how I reacted when I was around Ulquiorra. He was acting indifferently (from what I could tell, but saying that he was being different just because of me was a little too hopeful. He was taking medications that changed his personality, so it should've been expected), but I was still being a crazy fangirl. It honestly angered me that I acted like that, and I knew if Grimmjow saw me doing what I have (putting my head on his chest, sleeping next to him, brushing noses), he wouldn't like it. Simply forgetting how much I'd adored Ulquiorra was proving to be a difficult task._**

**_ I was shaken out of my trance as Grimmjow said, "Hey, did you listen to what I said?"_**

**_ "No, sorry…," I murmured, staring into Grimmjow's sky blue eyes. Uncertain sky blue eyes._**

**_ "I'm…I don't like what you said," Grimmjow started. "I really don't like it. I think you just ruined my day, and tomorrow…maybe my li—ow."_**

**_ "Shut up," I grumbled. "And that was a tiny ass smack on the head, it's not gonna split your head open. You're the sixth, 'member?"_**

**_ "Yeah, but either way, I'm sorta pissed."_**

**_ "I can tell."_**

**_ "I'm okay with giving you space, though," he consented. My eyes widened in surprise. I wasn't thinking he'd actually oblige, I thought that we'd have to compromise or something. "How about I kiss you whenever I want, but no fondling?" I blushed when he said that._**

**_ "Don't say it so bluntly…"_**

**_ "What am I supposed to say? No trailing my hands over every inch of your bo—"_**

**_ "Ah! Stop it," I exclaimed, putting my hands over my ears and screwing my eyes shut. "You bastard…"_**

**_ "Yeah, but you love me for it," he replied smugly. My eyes opened and I looked at him thoughtfully._**

**_ "Uh-huh…" I left it at that as we left my room._**

So here I was, a little pissed that he'd still had the nerve to push our bodies together as he kissed me. Sure, he wasn't touching me, but we were making more than just mouth contact.

Barely noticing that my feet had already led me inside Ulquiorra's room, I was startled when I heard Ulquiorra say, "Woman."

"Y-yeah? I mean, uh, good morning," I stuttered.

"Woman…"

"What is it, Ulq—" I went silent when I saw him, standing up and trying to take a step forward and away from his bed. "Wait, don't do that!"

I almost failed to catch him when he fell; he was panting heavily from the excessive effort he was putting in. Even after I struggled to get him back onto his bed and situated him comfortably, he immediately tried to get up again. "Ulquiorra, you're not fully healed! You need to rest, or you'll just get worse and then you're going to have to stay here longer," I reminded him, pushing him back down by his shoulders. It seemed like the room's temperature dropped to an absolute zero when he sent a glare my way, making me almost want to back away. It wasn't like his normal stare; this was even colder and held immense hostility. But what affected me the most was the pleading look in his eyes that betrayed his cold aura.

"Let me go, woman." His voice was barely a whisper as he caught his breath. His eyebrows furrowed together a bit when I shook my head firmly. "Woman, you cannot contain me here forever."

"And you can't get up yet," I responded just as firmly. "Don't," I said when he tried to forcefully get up but I was apparently a bit stronger. That was when I realized that his condition really was bad.

"How dare you…," he hung his head, shielding his expression from me, "Knowing that I am weak right how…decide to take advantage of that and constrain me—"

"Ulquiorra, I'm only constraining you here because I don't want you to hurt yourself!" I nearly shouted in his face. Instead the tone of my voice was just incredibly loud, but not too loud to be considered a yell or shout (if that makes any sense).

"…I will not try to get up. Just take your hands off of my shoulders," he murmured. I hesitated before slowly taking my hands off. "I appreciate it."

"Why were you doing that?" I asked. "You know how long it usually takes you to heal, yet you still attempted to forcefully get yourself out of bed."

"Can you imagine how degraded it feels to be looked down upon? To be sneered at for showing this amount of weakness, and to know that they are looking at you in that way on purpose? To not be able to serve our lord because of this insane thing inside of me?" His head lifted up a fraction of an inch and I could see him clenching his teeth in anger. "I want to get rid of this, but how can I when I am a weak bastard who cannot heal in a shorter amount of—" His speech was cut off as I put a hand over his mouth.

"You are not weak," I firmly stated, looking him in the eyes (maybe even into his soul). "You aren't a bastard. All you need to do is be patient. To hell with what people do when they see you, they can all go fuck themselves. Don't degrade yourself just because of your image." His eyes were wider as I voiced my thoughts. "How did you even come to the conclusion that people look down on you and sneer at you?"

One of Ulquiorra's hands slowly made its way to my hand, that was still covering his mouth. I let him uncover his mouth and grew surprised when he grasped my hand instead of letting it go.

"I know that people already have an image of me; I am the harsh and indifferent fourth espada, Ulquiorra Schiffer," he started. "Ulquiorra will kill anyone who gets in the way of Lord Aizen's plans, even his comrades. The fourth espada is incapable of having emotions. He will never once regard someone as anything other than trash."

"Ulquiorra…"

"It's too late to change the person I've become."

"That's not true," I said, sitting on the bed and putting a hand on his shoulder. He looked like he was on the brink of tears, which I didn't think was possible. It hurt to see him like this. And I was the whole cause of this in the first place… "You wouldn't be acting like this if I hadn't made you lose control of your other side."

"If I had better control of my other side, he wouldn't have shown up that easily."

"Look…what I'm trying to say is…you shouldn't care about what other people think," I explained. "And if you wanna change, it's not as hard as you think." I waited for him to say something in response, but when he didn't I reluctantly let go of his shoulder and got up to get his medications.

"Thank you," he murmured as I gave them to him. As a means of distraction, I sat down and started to fiddle with my hair to calm myself. I felt as if something extremely intimate had been shared between us just now. Suddenly, Ulquiorra shifted his eyes to me and asked, "Do you have any pride?"

"Eh?" I said confusedly, a little deflated by his question. Was that an indirect insult? So much for an intimate moment. "What do you mean by that?"

"You do not seem to care about what other people think of you," he elaborated. "If it was up to me, I would say you were arrogant—"

"…Um…"

"But," he continued, "you are not arrogant. You just seem very carefree and relaxed." I thought about what he'd said. _I'm anything but relaxed right now_, I thought to myself.

"I think having excessive pride is…like thinking too highly of yourself," I said, sweat dropping when I saw Ulquiorra's eyes narrow a bit as I said that. "I'm not saying that you're like that or anything, but…er, I think that you aren't willing to succumb easily."

"…"

"That doesn't make any sense, does it?"

"Not at all."

"Okay, let's try this: you are too caught up in your image reflected by other people to care about what you really feel about yourself. The fact that you think other people expect you to act a certain way is completely incorrect. I'm not an expert, but I know that you can't keep up an image forever. What you need to do is decide for yourself who you're going to be." I felt quite satisfied with my newer explanation, seeing Ulquiorra's eyes widen as if I'd opened him up like a textbook and read all the statistics. Smiling, I pointed my index finger right above his hollow hole and said, "You decide. Not them, not Aizen, not me. You, Ulqui—uwah!" I felt my wrist being pulled and I fell onto Ulquiorra's chest. My face reddened as I felt his arms wrap around me tightly.

"You…you are the only one who has attempted to understand," he whispered. I stilled and kept listening. "I did not think someone would ever think of trying to know me, yet here you are. I feel as if you have known me ever since I became an arrancar, or before that, when I first transformed into a hollow." Our breathing was the only thing that could be heard, besides the sound of blood pounding in my ears at his words.

"Ulquiorra…uh…," I muttered, not knowing what to do in this situation.

** 'Stupid, just hug him back.'**

_You again?_

** 'Nice to see you again, too.'**

_Always appearing at the best moments, aren't you?_

** 'You bet. Now, respond to him, he's noticing your behavior.'**

Glancing at Ulquiorra, I saw that she was right, he was still hugging me but had put a bit of space between us, making me able to move more. He was looking at me quizzically and I realized just how strange I was acting.

"Alexia, is there something wrong?"

** 'Oh snap, he just called you by your name~'**

_YOU'RE NOT HELPING!_ I internally screamed as my face turned red. "Nothing's wrong, I'm just thinking…," I gulped before asking the question that was nagging at me now, "…What am I to you?"

"…You're not trash."

** 'You're definitely getting somewhere.'**

_Shut up._ "What I meant to say was, am I…um, a friend or…something else…?" I averted my gaze from his completely serious expression. Then I felt myself being hugged again.

"You are a very important person to me," Ulquiorra started. "I do not think I have ever felt a need to have someone by my side, but now someone has caused me to. You are that person."

** 'Not really satisfied?'**

_I don't know…I want his answer to be more specific. I'm just hoping he's not going to say that I annoy him or something. I'm not sure I want him to say something really extreme, either, like he adores me._ I internally snickered. _As if. I'm probably just being too—_

"You are a very good friend, my only real friend, really."

I felt something stir up in me and found myself hugging him back tighter than he ever could've done to me. Then I realized that the reason I was reacting like this was because I'd been afraid. Afraid of being pushed away. Afraid of not being able to interact with him like usual because of this event that was changing both of us. But I knew that as long as he saw me as someone he could trust, I would be content.

"You're my friend, too," I murmured. "My favorite."

** 'Woah, woah, woah, this scene is waaaay too cheesy.'**

_Nice job ruining the mood…_

** 'You're welcome.'**

I was suddenly pushed away from Ulquiorra, who had a half-panicked look on his face. The feeling of rejection hit me hard and I felt like yelling in frustration._ I knew it, it's too good to be true._

"I can sense Grimmjow heading over here," he explained. My eye twitched and I mentally facepalmed. _Stupid, stupid, stupid…_ "You should probably maintain a bit of distance so as not to make him suspect the incorrect." I nodded silently, slipped out of his arms and cleared my throat before going to his bookshelf and getting Kissed by an Angel, sitting down on his computer chair and starting off where I had ended up yesterday. As if on cue, Grimmjow opened the door and walked in. Unfortunately, he could sense the awkward atmosphere the moment he entered.

"What's with you guys?" he asked, crossing his arms. I glanced at him, then went back to reading; Ulquiorra stared for a few seconds before averting his gaze. Grimmjow raised an eyebrow.

"We just…got bored," I said nonchalantly. "I'm pretty much done with what I have to do, so I'm just chillin', ya know?"

"Okay…," Grimmjow murmured, walking over to me and offering his hand for me to hoist myself up. "Let's go."

"Well, someone's a little impatient," I smirked, closing the book before getting up without Grimmjow's help. "Um, would you mind if you could wait outside?" I asked quietly. "There's something I want to do…"

Grimmjow hesitated for a few moments before nodding and walking out of the room, shutting the door quietly behind him.

"And don't even try eavesdropping!" I called out.

"…Shit," I could barely hear his answer.

"Stupid," I scoffed, crossing my arms in disbelief before going over to Ulquiorra once more and holding my fist out at him. He raised an eyebrow at me. "Uh, you don't know what a fist bump is, do you?"

**'Why do you even bother asking him?'**

_Shut it._ "Here," I took one of his hands and shaped it into a fist, then bumped our knuckles together. "It's something like a handshake. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Alexia." Hearing my name being said by him was enough to turn me into a puddle of goo—from happiness that he wasn't calling me 'woman' anymore, that is. He regarded me as a friend now. That's all.

"Y-yeah?"

"I have something to have pride in now: our friendship," he commented. For a second—I wasn't even sure if it actually happened—I thought I might've seen the corners of his lips turn up a bit, just a fraction of a centimeter. I blushed and nodded happily before leaving, shutting the door behind me silently.

"So, what're you hiding from me?" Grimmjow asked as we walked away.

"Nothing, really," I tried to avoid giving details. We were walking in a different direction, left instead of right, which piqued my interest. "Where are we going?"

"Well, we never got to picking out a weapon for you, since you almost killed yourself with a boomerang," Grimmjow teased, then stopped when I glared and added, "Plus, Luppi interrupted."

"I'm sort of glad you didn't kill him," I voiced my thoughts. He looked at me as if I was headless. "It's just…well, let's say that you'll have the perfect opportunity soon enough." As odd as it might have sounded, that was when I realized that I didn't know what the date was. Could've been the year 3000 for all I knew.

Just to make sure, I checked my watch to see if there was any indication of a month, day, year—anything, but didn't discover one single thing. I hated not knowing facts; I was a person who liked statistics and didn't like making inferences and having to assume or guess.

"I don't remember the entrance being over here," I noted when Grimmjow opened the doors. Yet it was definitely the same room as before, seeing as how it was impossible to not notice the hundreds of weapons on the walls.

"The arsenal has a shitload of different entrances, even a few secret ones that probably only Aizen knows about. Oh, and I recommend you get something that isn't going to fly back at your head when you throw it," Grimmjow suggested, holding back a snicker. I punched his shoulder halfheartedly (so as not to break my arm) before going off in search of a weapon.

Obviously, I didn't have a lot of experience with swords, daggers, etc., so I wasn't certain about what to choose that would go with my skills. As if I had any. It seemed that Grimmjow knew it, too, because out of the corner of my eye I could tell he was silently laughing his ass off. _Funny, I thought he'd never be able to last five seconds doing that._

"Shut up and help me out," I grumbled, crossing my arms and glaring at him as his laughter wore off.

"A please would be nice."

"…"

"Or I could just leave you here."

"Okay, 1) I'm pretty sure I can defend myself," I reminded him by pointing at the countless arms on the walls. "Two: Someone is bound to find me soon enough, and 3)…I doubt you can stay away from me for that long."

He grinned and flicked me off, which I gladly returned with an equally mischievous grin.

"Just tell me what weapons do what and how to use them or something," I said as he went and grabbed different weapons off of the wall; a sword, dagger, spear, those…boomerang thingies…and one item that was difficult to make out at a glance. Taking a closer look at it, the only thing I could conclude from its shape was that it seemed to be some sort of fan. Which made me wonder just how it could be used in battle.

"You should probably start off with a sword before you start using any of this other stuff," Grimmjow advised, handing me a katana with a green and blue hilt.

Ironic.

The sword felt foreign in my hands as I switched it from my left hand to my right. Grimmjow handed me the sheath, which I placed in the belt loop of my beige cargo pants. Coincidentally, there just happened to be a mirror a few yards away from where I was standing. I sheathed the sword and walked over to the mirror; the katana's length seemed to fit my height perfectly, but there was something about the sword that didn't exactly _fit_…

Yeah, because that made perfect sense.

"Uh, why don't you take a swing?" Grimmjow suggested, taking a step towards me and holding his arm out.

"…And this is the part where I look at you like you're crazier than I thought," I informed him, doing exactly that.

"I have hierro, so you probably can't cut me," Grimmjow reminded me with a smirk. He was probably trying to piss my off, in which he succeeded. Tentatively, I took a few steps forward, increased my pace and brought the sword down on his arm. Silence took over as I saw the outcome of my efforts.

_I barely even scratched him. Shit._

_Well, I guess I should've seen it coming_, I told myself. There's no way I could've nicked him. He nodded and told me to keep swinging to get some practice in. After about half an hour, my arms were more than a bit sore from carrying the weight of the katana above my head (it wasn't that heavy, but I wasn't that fit, either; I couldn't remember the last time I'd done any exercise) and then down onto his arm. With the same damn outcome: nothing.

"Dammit, how much longer do I have to keep on doing this…?" I complained as I swung again, a frown marring my face. My legs felt like giving out on me and my arms were trembling. Hating to admit it, I said, "I'm not exactly in shape as of right now…"

"I noticed."

"Shut up."

"No thanks," he replied. "Five more minutes, that's it. I promise," he assured when I looked at him warily. Sighing, I resumed my activities and the whole time swung in time of a song that was currently in my head, "Feel Good Inc." by Gorillaz. I definitely wanted to feel good at the moment.

I started to pant at the end of the third minute and felt on the brink of passing out when Grimmjow announced that my training was over. If I'd had the strength I probably would've shouted in glee. Instead I settled for falling on top of Grimmjow's chest.

"Damn, that was quite a workout for you, wasn't it?" Grimmjow asked, not expecting an answer. I gave him one anyways.

"…Oh no, I still have plenty of energy inside me," I mumbled into his chest.

"Then let's go for another half—"

"NO!" Well, at least I knew I had enough energy to scold Grimmjow. "Just…you mind carrying me back?"

"No prob, princess."

"Don't call me that."

"Why not?"

"…" There was a certain reason I didn't like that nickname, multiple actually, but it wasn't easy for me to say. I should've been comfortable with telling Grimmjow, but for some anonymous reason my gut told me to save it for another time. "It's not really important. Don't worry about it."

Grimmjow stared at my semi-melancholic expression before deciding to let it go and picked me up bridal style after setting back all the weapons to their rightful places.

"You're not going make me answer you?" I asked curiously.

"…Let's just say that we all have our reasons for keeping things to ourselves." When he said that, I remembered how he'd reacted when I'd asked about his hollow hole and concluded that he was doing this out of fairness. As we walked back to my room, I hooked my arms around his neck. I felt him stiffen and he turned his head to face me, our noses touching. His eyes held…doubt. Sadness. And…was that confusion? I broke our eye contact, burying my head in his neck. Then he suddenly unwrapped his arms from under me and set me down on the floor. "You can walk just fine by now, right?"

I hesitated for a moment before replying, "Yeah, but knowing you I thought you wouldn't have a problem with carrying me."

"I'm just feeling a little tired," he said. As of on cue, he yawned loudly, which didn't exactly convince me of what he was saying. I sighed, deciding not to press the matter further or else he'd probably get pissed. And I didn't really want to deal with a pissed Grimmjow.

As we arrived at my room I found myself, once again, faced with a giant dilemma as soon as I entered my room: _what the hell was I supposed to do now?_

Well, I wasn't going to complain to Grimmjow, that was for sure.

_Okay_, I told myself, _what can I do? There's no violin…no TVs, computers or game consoles of any sort…I could write, but I usually saved that for the end of the day_. Then an idea popped into my head and I wanted someone to slap me for not thinking of it before. I could do more than just writing in my journal, I could draw, too.

As I said, I wanted to be slapped.

Fishing through a pack of my 24-pack of pencils, I found the small sharpener Szayelapporo had given me, at the bottom of the box. I took out four pencils and sharpened them to the point where I could probably cut through Grimmjow's hierro with them.

"What, exactly, are you doing?" Grimmjow asked, watching as I propped myself up on my pillows and crossed my legs, flipping to a random page and started with a rough outline.

"Drawing," I replied happily. "It's great to pass the time."

"Why?"

"First of all, it's fun; things that are fun don't usually seem to last too long, but actually make the time pass by quicker. Second…I take a very, very, very, very, very—"

"I think I get the—"

"Very long time to finish my drawings," I continued, "But it pays off. My drawings are awesome."

"That's a bit narcissistic," he commented.

"I know."

With my pencil in hand and the feel of paper (not to mention that I had a major urge to draw), the world around me was forgotten as I blocked it out.

I started with the hairline; pure black hair to the shoulders, some strands spiking out and a part draping down the middle of the face. Thick eyebrows that were nearly connecting to the eyelids and were shaped in small diamonds at the end that wasn't covered by the hair. Large eyes with emerald green irises and a serpent-like pupil. The top lip black, the bottom one left white. Lastly, a tear track starting at the lower eyelids and ended at the bottom of his cheeks. I fixed the shape of his eye, which seemed more square than ovular, then drew his hollow mask and erased excess lines. _And that is how you draw Ulquiorra Schiffer_. Stopping to look at my now completed work, I smiled proudly at my masterpiece (a little self-praise is good once in a while, you know) and lifted my head up, intending to show Gri—

_And the bastard's asleep._

To be precise, he was curled up on my couch…a lot like a cat. Go figure. I set my journal on the bed and got up, immediately regretting rising from the bed so fast because of my stiff muscles. I was too into my drawing to remember to take breaks and stretch. I stared in disbelief at my watch. 9:53 p.m.

_Damn. I really did take a shitload of time._

"Crap…," I mumbled as I twisted my body to the left and right, hearing a satisfying crack a few seconds later. "Much better." I flexed my hands and bent my legs a few times before walking over to Grimmjow; even then, I still had a little trouble getting there without stumbling.

Grimmjow's mouth was half open and I swore I could see him drooling. Deciding whether or not that was cute or disgusting was my question. Cautiously, I poked his cheek._ I swear, if he kicks me I'll fuckin' kill him in his sleep…_

I could barely dodge the fist that flew out and almost hit my stomach. A cross-popping vein appeared at the top of my head, my patience wearing out. Then I heard a mumble from Grimmjow, my anger deflated and reinflated with curiosity.

"That's…a lie…shut up…," he murmured, his eyebrows furrowing. I gulped and my heart rate sped up at his words. _What was a lie? Who was he telling to shut up? Damn it…_ "Fuck you."

"Grimmjow," I called out softly, putting a hand to his forehead; he was abnormally warm. "Wake up, Grimmjow." I applied more pressure onto his shoulder, trying to shake him out of his sleep. It didn't work.

"You're wrong," he said slightly louder, making me worry. _What the hell is going on in his head…?_ "Dammit, Pantera…stay out of this…"

_Is he…communicating with Pantera?_ There were too many questions I didn't know the answer to, which was pissing me off. I waited for him to continue, but his eyes shot open. A look of panic crossed his face before he realized that he wasn't in a dream and sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"Grimmjow…," I said worriedly. He stared back with an equally, if not more, worried expression. Without warning, he grabbed my face with both hands and gave an urgent kiss, his tongue entering my mouth immediately. He only broke away to pull me onto the couch; I tried to push him off, but in moments my hands were held above my head, making me completely vulnerable to him. The thought was a bit frightening.

My eyes widened and I gasped when I felt Grimmjow tugging at the buttons on my plaid purple-and-black shirt, undoing the buttons one by one with one hand and planting kisses down my neck, starting to make his way to my cleavage. _Shit, shit, shit…_

"Grimmjow…stop it, please," I whispered. He ignored me and continued. At this point I didn't know what else to do, it was nearly impossible to get him off and my words weren't reaching him. I lifted my leg and tried to put some distance between us by putting my knee in the way but he glared at me and pushed it out of the way harshly, a jolt of pain shooting up my leg at his action.

I could barely hear him mutter, "Just shut up already, Pantera."

"Grimmjow, what's with y—ah…!" I bit my lip as I felt his tongue flick out and start to make a trail from my collar to the middle of my chest, then repeated the process from different angles. My right shoulder, left shoulder, from my chin—fuck, I needed to stop him… "G-grimm…j-jow."

"Alexia," he murmured, kissing me roughly.

"Grimmj-jow."

"A…le…xi…a," he said each syllable seductively as he licked the shell of my ear.

"Grimmjow…!" Damn it, why wasn't he wondering why I was saying his name so much!? This time he didn't answer at all and brought his lips down on my neck; I felt him sucking on that spot and immediately processed what he was doing.

This, I wasn't going to let by.

"Grimmjow!" I said firmly, momentarily overpowering his grip on my wrists, grabbing his shoulders and forcing him to pull away. His eyes were glazed over with lust.

"What?" He wondered, his voice husky. "You like it, don't you?"

My eyes narrowed. "It's not about whether I like it or not, it's—" I was almost cut off by Grimmjow's lips, but I put a hand in front of my face, palm up, and he ended up kissing my hand instead. I pushed him away roughly. "Grimmjow, you need to—"

"I need you," he said, grinding against me. I glared, not affected by his actions anymore. Anger flooded over when I felt a hand creeping up my leg. "I want you. All of you."

"Grimmjow!" I tried to get him to snap out of it as he started to part my legs. "Grimmjow!"

"Shut up."

"GRIMMJOW!"

The echo of a slap followed by silence. I was panting heavily—as for Grimmjow, I couldn't tell if he was even breathing or not, because of the pounding of blood in my head. I took a few deep breaths, calming my temper. Or, at least, trying to.

Grimmjow's head was still turned in the direction I'd slapped him, his eyes wide. If it was from anger, confusion or realization I wasn't sure. I hoped it was realization. Slowly, he rotated his head and looked at me. But it didn't feel like he was looking directly at me; it was more like he was looking through me.

Then his composure completely broke down and he started sobbing.

"Grimm?" He laid down on my chest, and I realized with a blush that I hadn't buttoned up my shirt yet. That wasn't exactly important right now, though. Obviously. "Grimmjow, what's gotten into you?" Okay, maybe that wasn't the best thing to say to someone crying their eyes out.

"I…n-need to…t-take me to…the b-bathroom," he wheezed out. I nodded and draped his arm around my shoulder. Carrying his weight around wasn't exactly easy, but he regained some of his footing (why he didn't have any in the first place was a mystery to me) and successfully made it into the bathroom. Immediately after he was inside, I ran over to my dresser and looked at myself in the small hand mirror I had.

My hair was messy and crumpled. There was a reddish tinge to my lips. I hastily buttoned up my shirt and smoothed it out, then attempted to brush out my hair with my hands. Giving up, I made a braid to hold it together. My eyebrows furrowed when I heard a frustrated yell and wondered if I should check on him. Suddenly, the bathroom door slammed open, revealing Grimmjow. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion, then widened in surprise when he sonidoed over to me and hugged the living (and dead, probably) daylights out of me.

"G-grimm…"

"I'm sorry, Alexia," he proclaimed. His hold on me increased. "I can't believe I did that. I'm not sure what possessed me, but I'm not going to let it get the best of me ever again. I hope…you can forgive me, although I was being an incredible jackass," he continued hastily. This sudden change in personalities only made me more confused.

After a few moment's hesitation, I hugged him back, albeit cautiously. "Grimmjow, I can't stay mad at you forever."

"I know," he said, his playful tone of voice good as new. "That's why I'm awesome. I was having a hard time trying to convince myself to apolo—"

"No, I'm just horrible at having grudges for long amounts of time, regardless of who the person is," I responded to his former statement.

"…Oh."

I snickered and mocked, "What, did you think that I was only forgiving with you?"

"Maybe…," he said, letting me go. I'm not sure what motivated me to ask my next question.

"What do you dream of, Grimm?" He looked at me in shock. "You talk in your sleep, and some of the things you're saying…I want to know what exactly it is that you're dreaming about." Everything was silent for a few seconds.

"I can't tell you that."

A bit of anger stirred up inside me. "I heard you say my name. If it concerns me, I want to know."

"No, you don't."

"Grimm—"

"Alexia, please," he asked, "I just did this to you and I know that you'd like to know why I did it, but I can't. And don't ask why, Alexia, I just can't explain it to you."

"…I guess we all have things that we need to keep to ourselves," I quoted him, although it wasn't his exact words. His eyes narrowed and he averted his gaze from me.

"I should probably go, it's getting late," Grimmjow informed. Nodding, I checked my watch just to check and see if it really was late. Holy shit. 11:49 p.m.

"Goodnight," I murmured, then hesitated before giving him a small kiss on his cheek. He seemed surprised that I still wanted to have any type of snogging involved.

"Y-you too…," he said, smiling. It was the first smile from him that wasn't from embarrassment, but a genuine smile that showed just how happy he was.

"Alexia?" A voice rang out, surprising both of us. I walked over to the door and tentatively opened the door bit by bit, revealing Szayel on the other side. "It's extremely fortunate that you're still awake."

"Hey, Szayel," I greeted with a small wave. "Is there something wrong?"

"Well, I'm not just here to deliver the bad news," Szayel informed me, running a hand through his pink locks. "Something important's happened today, and I thought you should be the first to know about it."

Growing excited, I asked, "Really? What happened, Szayel?"

"Well, I've done plenty of research on the snat, and now that my analysis is done, I've given it a few vaccines and injections. It can now freely roam Las Noches without threatening the lives of others." I wondered where he was going with this. "It can even be maintained as a pet now."

_Holy. Mother. Fucking. Shit._

"Y-you mean I can have the snat as a pet now!?" I asked, my excite-o-meter breaking through the roof. On cue, said snat peeked out from Szayel's legs and made its way over to me, curling up at my feet. I felt like I'd just won the lottery, and the million dollars was equivalent to the snat.

I crouched down and picked up the snat, cuddling it in my arms. It yawned and snuggled into my chest, and a warm feeling of joy erupted from me.

"It's safe to assume that you liked this?" Szayel asked. It was pretty much a rhetorical question, since you didn't need to hear an exact answer to know it.

"I think this's my best day yet," I commented, but my smile faded slightly when I realized that it wasn't that great at all. Szayel noticed as well, but shrugged it off. "Thank you, Szayel."

"It's nothing to thank me for," he replied. He smiled and took his leave. I turned around to show off my pet to Grimmjow but he wasn't anywhere in sight. I checked the bathroom as well but didn't find him at all. _Don't tell me he left without me noticing…Sneaky bastard._

I turned to the snat, which was following me everywhere. "Where do you think Grimmy is?" I asked. It simply blinked twice before ignoring the question altogether. I let out a small laugh. _Oh well. Might just get ready for bed already_; after the covers were undone and I was settled comfortably beneath them, I was able to sleep soundly. I mean, who wouldn't be able to sleep with a cat-snake hybrid creature sleeping next to you?

I thought briefly about today. In detail, Ulquiorra's behavior. Although, I didn't have to think too much; today was obviously pride. Which left greed, wrath, and…lust. I'd already had enough of that today. I made a commitment to myself: _you have to find out what's going on with Grimmjow by the time Ulquiorra heals._

I was starting to get tired by all this.

Grimmjow: …(hiding in a corner of the room)

Alexia. •_• G-grimmjow…did that…to me…

Me: I write things off the top of my head T_T' besides, I can't have things skipping to the part where everything is fine and dandy.

Ulquiorra: T_T* (murderous aura) How much longer is this going to last?

Me: That's for me to know and you to find out ;D

Ulquiorra: Imprison, Murci—

Me: No! (Hugs) I promise, this isn't going to last too long!

Grimmjow: Anyways…uh, could you guys review for her? She really likes reviews, plus (grimaces) you guys get rewards for that.

Alexia: And don't forget to visit her profile page and vote on her poll! See you guys later ^_^

Me: I don't own the song by Gorillaz, by the way ;D But it's awesome, you should listen to it.


	11. The choice of three sins

Ulquiorra: Welcome.

Grimmjow: Yo

Alexia: Hey there!

Me: …zzz

Alexia: (smacks me upside the head) T_T* That was your cue!

Me: (Yawns) Sorry 'bout that. A good morning/afternoon/night to you all…(starts to fall asleep again)

Alexia: Well, while I get her to wake up again, you guys can read the next chapter ^_^

Grimmjow: You'd better enjoy it.

**DAY SIX**

To say that the morning moved at a sluggish pace was an understatement. It was more like the amount of time it took for the Earth's continents to shift.

First, I'd gotten up at around six a.m., then went back to sleep. I wasn't sure why, but I'd had an extremely strange dream; a friend of mine, Daniela, was fooling and clowning around (something I could never imagine her doing—but, apparently, I could). With Luppi. It sort of made sense…their personalities were alike. The only difference was that Daniela wasn't annoying and purposely arrogant, and didn't get on my nerves. Usually.

When I woke up again, I'd immediately pinched myself to make sure I was fully awake and to assure myself that Daniela and Luppi weren't going to waltz into my room any given second. Literally.

The time had progressed a full whopping fifteen minutes. Great. Deciding that I wasn't going to get much Z's in anymore, I took a long bath to the point where my whole body felt like a raisin. That had taken an hour and a half, meaning that it was 7:45 by the time I'd gotten out and put on a new pair of pajamas. I didn't really feel like putting on something casual or an official outfit. There was a chance I'd end up falling asleep again, though, because of the comfortable fabric of my PJs.

"What is there to do now?" I asked myself as I made the bed and then plopped down on it, hugging a pillow to my body and starting to lull into sleep. "I hope…I don't have…another dream like that…"

A knock at the door just barely erased my drowsiness and replaced them with confusion. Cautiously, I got up and tiptoed to my door. It was pretty inconvenient that there wasn't a peephole to see who was there. Guess I'd just have to take a risk and…well, we'd cross that bridge when we got to it.

"Hello…who's there?" I said before opening the door a few inches. Nothing. My head peeked out and looked to the left and right. The eerie hallway was completely silent; more than I would've liked, although there shouldn't have been anything making noise anyways. I started to close the door, looked down and nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw something black rubbing itself against my calf.

"Holy shit!" I yelled, glaring at the snat. "How did you even get out here?" Moreover…as far as I could tell, I was pretty sure a cat/snake couldn't knock on doors. Uncertainty creeped up on me and I was about to usher the snat inside when it suddenly strode off. "Hey, get back here…"

"Mrow?" It stopped moving and became as still as a statue. Its ears perked up and she craned her neck, looking at me quizzically. Her eyes held the unspoken question: _What's wrong?_

I had no idea.

The snat finally decided to not continue its path to…wherever it was going…and trotted back inside my room. Sighing, I shut the door behind me, locked the door (and made sure it wasn't going to open anytime soon) and flopped on the couch. A smile made its way to my face when I felt the snat jump onto my lap and rest its head on the crook of my arm. It yawned loudly and I scratched its ears, chuckling when it started purring, reminding me of Grimmjow.

The knock.

My hand froze and the snat's purring stopped. It was just my imagination, wasn't it? Knowing Grimmjow, he'd probably just burst in. I hadn't heard the mystery knocker make any attempt to open the door before knocking, so it couldn't have been him. Szayel would've called out to me by now.

"So, when are ya gonna open the damn door?" A leering voice drawled out. My blood turned cold. "Ya can't stay in here forever, ya know…"

Nnoitora.

_Calm down. Don't react to him. Just stay silent,_ I encouraged myself. What I wanted to do was shout and tell him to get the fuck away. But that wouldn't bring any good results. Even with my snat (yes, I now considered it mine; Thanks, Szayel) cuddling up to me and trying to make me relax by letting me hear its purr, I couldn't stop myself from getting nervous. I realized that my hands were trembling and got up shakily, hoping I wasn't making much noise as I went to the bathroom, the snat trailing after me.

"Lexi, what happened to ya? Grimmjow didn't tell me he was into bondage."

_Stupid asshole—!_ I nearly shouted that out, but bit my lip so hard I'd drawn a bit of blood. Damn, didn't think my teeth were that lethal. To even start thinking that Grimmjow would gag me, let alone try to do any of that…I didn't know about him, but I definitely didn't like the sound of that.

I could tell Nnoitora was growing impatient as he said, "Ya bitch, open the damn door or I'll cero it to bits…and don't think for a second that I won't."

For once, he had a point.

"Wait a second—maybe I won't do that," he changed his mind, making me confused. "After all, if ya never come out then ya can't get to Ulquiorra. What time do ya have to be there? Time's running out, Lexi, make a choice. If ya agree to be my plaything for a while then I'll make sure he doesn't die." Anger consumed me. _Stand your ground. What the hell are you doing, going over to the door? No, take your hand off the knob. That's right, hesitate. Calm down, take a deep breath._

_ No, don't turn the knob, you dumbass!_

"Well, she _does_ exist," Nnoitora cackled. His hand reached out and grabbed a fistful of my hair, pulling me ever-so-closer to him. I took a shaky breath as a perverse grin spread across Nnoitora's face. "I'm guessing you're gonna behave this time, like a good pet, right?" My teeth clenched and I barely managed to not spit in his face.

"…!" I noticed with a shock that Tesla was right behind me when I felt my hands being held behind my back. I started to struggle against them. Nnoitora was typical to act this way…I should've known that Tesla would go along with whatever he wanted, with no limitations. His voice was barely as soft as a whisper when he said, "I'm sorry." He was most likely apologizing for the sake of both of them.

"I didn't hear yer answer, bitch," he reminded me painfully by tugging on my hair, making me wince. "Tell me that you're gonna behave. Might be some problems if ya don't."

"…s."

"I didn't hear ya," he sneered. I narrowed my eyes and thrashed in his grasp. I was so damn helpless; like those stupid girls who were good-for-nothings and couldn't defend themselves. That was my fear; always having to have somebody to protect me. It was pathetic.

"¡Vete al diablo (Go to the devil)," I hissed. Though, telling him to go to Aizen wouldn't be that effective. His grin vanished and he nodded to Tesla. I was slammed against the wall and I let out a cry of pain, tears at the corner of my eyes.

"Whatever you just said, I don't like it," Nnoitora whispered in my ear. Mentally facepalming, I tried not to tell him to go learn Spanish before deciding that something I've said is bad. Not that it wasn't. "I guess we're gonna do this the hard way. Maybe then Ulquiorra can see how pathetic you are."

"No!" I yelled, trying to pry myself out of his grasp again. He wouldn't. He couldn't. "You…you wouldn't dare to—" I was cut off by Nnoitora's all-too-familiar mouth.

"Tesla, let's take this bitch to Ulquiorra's room," he instructed.

"Yes, master Nnoitora."

My heart beat frantically against my chest, feeling as if it were going to jump out at any second. I was dragged by the neck by Nnoitora, while Tesla held my hands behind my back and used some of my hair to tie it there. Clever bastard. The feeling of sobbing was slowly building up inside me and I fought desperately to contain it, but I still couldn't stop a tear from escaping my eyes.

We arrived at the espada's quarters too soon. The grip Nnoitora had on my neck was starting to cause pain, and my hands felt like their circulation was decreasing, resulting in them falling asleep.

"Ulquiorra!" Nnoitora called out once we were outside of said espada's room. "You there?"

"…What do you want, Gilga." It was a statement more than a question, as if he wanted to get this over with. Wait…there shouldn't have been an 'as if' in that sentence at all.

"Not much," Nnoitora replied casually, though his tone of voice clearly told Ulquiorra that he was hiding something.

"If there is something you must inform me of, do so quickly so I do not have to put up with you and your fracciòn any longer."

"In a hurry, much? Don't worry, I'm gonna make this worth your while, but I hafta take my time." With that Nnoitora swung the door open and shoved me inside, him striding behind. I landed on my knees and collapsed onto the floor.

Lifting my head up, I met confused and slightly fearful eyes. Ulquiorra's eyes. Time stopped for a few moments but was interrupted by Nnoitora lifting me up roughly and pressing me to him.

"Let go…," I whispered desperately. "Let go of me."

"I don't wanna," Nnoitora replied snidely.

"Let go, now."

"And if I don't feel like it?"

"Nnoitora, get your disgusting, bloody self away from me, you bastard!" I yelled as his face neared mine. Looking out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ulquiorra's expression. Indifferent for the most part, but there was a bit of surprise in his eyes, along with what could've been anger. "Get off of me! Nnoitora!" Honestly, I was surprised that he was letting me say this much.

Then again, he was probably letting me for the benefit of putting on a show for Ulquiorra.

"Let's see…where should I start?" he contemplated. "I could begin here:" he licked my ear and I shuddered in repulsion. "Or…here," he craned my neck back and bit down on the skin on my collar and I twisted in his grasp. "Wait, I know just the thing—" he grabbed my chin and forced me to look at him.

"Stop this!" I pleaded desperately. "Don't…not here…"

"So, ya wanna take this outside?"

_Fuck_.

"N-no…" I grimaced when I felt Nnoitora's tongue trail from my neck to my chin, then my temple. "You bastard…"

"Would one of you please explain what exactly is going on here?" My eyes widened when I realized who the new speaker was.

…Szayel.

"What's someone like you doin' here?" Nnoitora asked angrily.

"I should be asking you the same thing," Szayel replied in a calm yet firm voice. It made me regain some of my composure, but I didn't forget the vulnerable state I was in. "I'm not sure Alexia is quite comfortable with what you're doing, I'd appreciate it if you let her go."

"Tch, what if I don't let her go?" Nnoitora shot back at Szayel. His patience was wearing out, his grip on me getting tighter by the second.

"Let's just say that Lord Aizen will have many things to discuss with you if you don't stop; especially with the mess I'll have to make of things."

"Don't forget, Szayelapporo. You're the eighth—I'm the best. The only one who's gonna be made a mess of is you," he replied smugly.

In a flash, Szayel sonidoed in front of Nnoitora and I. He retreated something from his pocket, akin to what Ulquiorra's vial looked like, but I had a feeling that what Szayel had wasn't that. I watched in awe as he expertly drew a drop of the vial's liquid onto Nnoitora's hand, the one on my chin.

"The fuck are you trying to do?" Nnoitora snickered. "Your holy water ain't gonna stop me—huh?" His hand twitched and its grip on my chin lessened. "What the hell is this!?"

"This 'holy water' is specifically for stopping people like you," Szayel said, walking away from Nnoitora. "It will paralyze you; hence, you won't be able to do anything. You will be stopped."

"Why, you—!" He lost all control of the hand that used to be on my chin and I could already feel his other hand also loosening up. "You cunt!"

"Now, that's not very polite, Nnoitora," Szayel informed. "I would not like to be referred to as a woman's genitals. Especially since I am the person who paralyzed you…I could paralyze much more than your arms, if you'd like.." A small smile traced Szayel's features and I realized that his aspect of death, madness, was kicking in.

As soon as his grip was loose enough, I wrenched myself out of Nnoitora's grasp and fell onto Ulquiorra's bed from the force I'd used to do so. He sent me a death glare and I gave him an even harsher one in return.

"Nnoitora, I think your role in Alexia's life today is just about done," Szayel said in a commanding tone I'd never heard him use before. It scared me a little, but if Nnoitora was scared he did one hell of a good job hiding it…despite the fact that he couldn't use his arms at the moment.

Nnoitora's eyes narrowed before he warned, "There ain't gonna be a knight in shining armor to come to your rescue all the time, Lexi. Remember that." He shot a glare at Tesla, who in turn looked at him in confusion. "Let's go, dammit."

"Y-yes, sir," Tesla nodded curtly before following Nnoitora out of the room. He kicked the door closed with his foot (I wasn't sure how long his arms would be rendered useless; a few centuries, perhaps?) so forcefully I thought he might've broken its hinges, but apparently it was sturdier than it seemed. Szayel quickly untied me from my hair, granting me relief as I felt my arms freed from their uncomfortable position.

Everyone was silent for a moment as I processed what had just happened, Szayel sighed and got to preparing Ulquiorra's medications, and Ulquiorra…well, I wasn't sure. Turning to see him, I stifled a nervous laugh when I saw his still-in-shock expression. Seconds later, he realized it himself when I waved a hand in front of his face. Blinking a few times, his facial expression gradually returned to normal.

"Are you…unharmed?" He hesitantly asked.

"I'm okay," I replied nonchalantly, noticing how his eyes narrowed a bit as I said that. "Really, I'm fine. Don't worry about it, it's all over now."

"Is this what happened last time?" He wondered. I averted my eyes and gave a small nod. He also averted his eyes and looked up at the ceiling. "It seems that regardless of when it has happened, Nnoitora's actions are caused by me."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "What makes you think that?"

"I was not present the first time he had attempted to assault you…you made that point very clear," he said, reminding me of how I'd gone off on him and threw a pillow at him out of my anger. I looked away, embarrassed.

"C-continue."

"This time, for whatever reason, it seems his goal was either for you to feel degraded because of him acting upon you in front of me; or to make me feel helpless. Regardless of what the reason was, it is because of me that he has the opportunity to take advantage of you."

"Okay, the first part might be true, but this time was completely different," I disagreed with him. Both of us didn't seem to notice Szayel sitting down in the computer chair, watching our discussion. "It was mainly my fault that this happened…plus, Grimmjow still hasn't shown up," the last part, I said under my breath. Curious, I turned to Szayel and hesitated a moment before asking, "Uh, I don't mean to sound rude or anything, but why are you here? I didn't know that you came here before I did."

"It's not like that at all," Szayel replied, confusing me.

"Then why…"

"Each time Grimmjow goes to your room at the beginning of the day, he passes by my lab. You recall me having surveillance cameras around my lab, correct?" I nodded and motioned for him to continue. "I usually see him, but today I grew curious and a bit worried that I hadn't seen him. Then I decided to go to your room, but found the place completely empty, except for her."

"'Her'?" I wondered. Szayel nodded and pointed at something behind me; I became aware of soft, yet scaly fur against my arm and almost jumped out of my skin. "Oh. How did she get here?"

"She seemed to have a sense of what had happened to you and guided me over here. Hence, I was able to find you before anything could happen." A great amount of pride swelled up in me and I picked up the snat, cuddling it in a hearty thanks. "You were extremely lucky that she'd recognized your scent so easily."

"Yep, lucky me," I agreed happily. Sounds like something Ikkaku would say…lucky. But don't expect me to start dancing.

Don't. Seriously.

I watched as the snat jumped out of my arms and slowly creeped up on Ulquiorra, who stared at her in curiosity. He didn't move a millimeter as she sniffed his hand, then gave it a small lick. It was impossible to not start laughing when she curled up against him and turned over, paws in the air.

"So, do you know where Grimmjow is?" I asked, getting a shake of Szayel's head as an answer.

"I'm not sure, but my best guess is that he's still in his room, sleeping," he assumed, me rolling my eyes.

"Who's he trying to be, Stark?" Szayel gave a small chuckle at that. "Honestly, I have an urge to go and wake him up right now!"

"Well, I guess you can if you really want to," Szayel suggested. "I'll take care of Ulquiorra while you go and—"

"No." Szayel and I both looked at each other confusedly and knew that neither of us had said that. We turned to look at Ulquiorra, who had the same face as always. Unless the snat could talk…there was some deep shit going on here.

"Uh, was that you, Ulquiorra?" I asked, more surprised when he nodded. The idea that the snat could talk seemed easier to believe than Ulquiorra firmly voicing his opinion, whatever you want to call it. "Er…why don't you want me to go wake him up…?"

"Why not have Szayelapporo go instead?" He suggested, calmly evading my question, making me sweat drop. "I would like to spend more time with you." That caused a slight blush to cross my face.

"S-sure, I'll stay." I turned to Szayel, my expression giving him a silent apology. "Would you mi—"

"Not at all," Szayel quickly agreed with a smile and left to get Grimmjow's ass out of bed.

"So…what exactly did you want to do while he gets Grimmjow awake?" I asked. Ulquiorra stared at me before slowly giving a half-hearted shrug. My eye twitched. "You told me to stay yet you don't know what you're going to do to pass the time."

"That is correct," he confirmed confidently, as if that was something to be proud of. "I simply wanted to spend time alone with you." I felt my heart rate pick up a bit after he said that. _Damn, you have Grimmjow. You're not supposed to react like this with other people, Alexia._

"…Is there something in particular you want to do?" I questioned, getting up from the bed; the snat immediately noticed and followed me.

"Would you mind reading to me?" He seemed to notice that I couldn't believe what he'd just said. Me? Read to him…?

"…I thought that the purpose of reading these books was for you to try to understand what love is."

"Well, you are the one who said that I should try to read a book and enjoy it, did you not?" he reminded me. "I am not in a condition to get out of bed, though, so you will have to do that for me."

Nodding in agreement, I went to the bookshelf and wondered what exactly he wanted me to read for him. "Uh…is there a certain book that you want me to read?"

"The one you've been reading the past few days," he chose. I got it, held it up to show it and he nodded in confirmation. "You may continue reading where you left off yesterday." It sounded more like a command than a suggestion…it might as well not be meant as a suggestion at all. Instead of answering, I decided to just start reading. It took a few second to find the place I'd finished at yesterday.

I cleared my throat before starting. Reading aloud wasn't something I did often, and when I did nothing would sink in and I'd have to read that part all over again. But for some reason, this time everything was immediately processed into my head. "Okay…

"_**'Ow!' The smell of crushed flowers filled the air.**_

**_ Ivy laughed out loud._**

**_ 'What's so funny?' Tristan asked, pulling from behind him the smashed flowers, but he was laughing, too._**

**_ 'What if somebody had come along and seen your father's Clergy sticker on the bumper?'_**

**_ Tristan tossed the flowers in the front seat and pulled her toward him again. He traced the silk strap of her dress, then tenderly kissed her shoulder. 'I'd have told them I was with an_**—"

"Why did he just do that?" Ulquiorra suddenly interrupted me and, therefore, my train of reading and thought was also interrupted. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Do what?"

"Kiss her?" The question made me confused because of two things: he knew what it meant to kiss(?), and…well, the answer to his question was pretty obvious, but now that I looked at it from Ulquiorra's perspective I guess he was still wondering about the heart and all that shit.

"Well, they're both in a romantic relationship at this point in the story," I explained. "Kissing her is something normal for them both, I guess." Ulquiorra seemed to think about that for a minute or so before slowly nodding in understanding.

"I know what you are trying to say; you may continue." I waved a hand dismissively and looked back to the page, finding my spot once again.

" **_'I'd have told them I was with an angel.'_**

**_ 'Oh, what a line!'_**

**_ 'Ivy, I love you!' Tristan said, his face suddenly serious._**

**_ She stared back at him, then bit her lip._**

**_ 'This isn't some kind of game for me. I love you, Ivy, and one day you're going to believe me.'_**

**_ She put her arms around him and held him tightly. 'Love YOU,' she whispered into his neck. Ivy did believe him, and she trusted him as she trusted no one else. One day she'd have the nerve to say it, all of the words out loud. I love you, Tristan. She'd shout it out the windows. She'd string a banner straight across the school pool.'_**"

"That does not make sense," Ulquiorra once again broke my speech off, making me roll my eyes. "Why would someone find it difficult to say four words?"

"Er…," I started. "Maybe she's…doubtful." All of a sudden, I was reminded of Grimmjow and I, our not-so-great relationship. "She isn't sure if she loves him or not. He might find it easy because of two things: either he doesn't care much or he really means it. In this case, it's the latter. You get what I'm trying to say, right?"

"Yes," he replied monotonously. "Continue." I mock saluted him and followed his instructions.

"**_It took a few minutes to straighten themselves up. Ivy started laughing again. Tristan smiled and watched her try to tame her gold tumbleweed of hair—a useless effort. Then he started the car, urging it over the ruts and stones and onto the narrow road._**

**_ 'Last glimpse of the river,' he said as the road made a sharp turn away from it._**"

"Does he die?" Ulquiorra asked me suddenly. What I found surprising was the fact that he was completely right; in fact, it was going to be less than a few minutes until I got to that part of the story.

"Well…if I keep on reading, you'll find—"

"I do not like to be uninformed on what happens, whether it is regarding the real world or a story of sorts." I sweat dropped. "Now, tell me."

I signed before answering, "Yeah, he does. Can you try not to interrupt next time I start reading?" He only stared at me skeptically for a few moments, not even batting an eye. "I'm taking that as a yes.

"**_The June sun, dropping over the west ridge of the Connecticut countryside, shafted light on the very tops of the trees, flaking them with gold. The winding road slipped below, into a tunnel of maples, poplars and oaks. Ivy felt as if she was sliding under the waves with Tristan, the setting sun glittering on top, the two of them moving together through a chasm of blue, purple and deep green. Tristan flicked on his headlights._**"

"That's seems like too much of a perfect scenario." His constant comments and questions were starting to get on my nerves.

"It's fiction, remember, Ulqui-cielago?" I asked.

"I suppose."

"Now, this time don't interrupt until I'm done with the chapter." I showed him the two pages I hadn't read so that I could prove he wouldn't have to listen much longer. "Ok, let's see…ah, here.

"**_'You really don't have to hurry,' said Ivy. 'I'm not hungry anymore.'_**

**_ 'I ruined your appetite?'_**

**_She shook her head. 'I guess I'm all filled up with happiness,' she said softly._**"

"So, she lost her appetite because someone kissed her? That illogical."

I pretty much died at that point.

"This is supposed to be relaxing…," I groaned, falling back onto the bed with the book clutched to my chest.

"I do not think this is what you would call relaxing anymore," Ulquiorra stated. I tapped my forehead with my index finger in a no-kidding gesture. _This's seriously giving me a head ache_, I groaned in my head as I rubbed my temples to clear my mind.

"This is the first time I've gotten fed up with reading," I mumbled. "Anyways…" An awkward silence filled the room after I didn't find anything to say. But just as quickly as it had formed, it dispelled when the snat suddenly jumped onto my lap, giving another loud yawn before curling up and falling into what seemed like sleep. It could've just been relaxing, though.

"It takes an intense liking to you," Ulquiorra commented, staring intently at the scene portrayed in front of him. I smiled slightly and petted her head.

"It's cute," I said, not knowing what he'd say in response to that. "I've always preferred cats over dogs."

"…How do you classify something as cute?" asked Ulquiorra.

"Well…it's not something that scares you…" _Real smart, Alexia_. "It's something that…you could say it's attractive," I tried to explain. "Attractive in a childish way."

"So, when you look at something and feel like a pedophile, that means that thing is cute?"

"No. Not at all." I facepalmed. "When something is sweet, metaphorically—" I sent him a half glare, "—that thing makes you feel happy, in a way."

"Am I cute?"

All the blood in my body rushed to my head. "Er…um…well, as for you…well, you do make me feel happy," I managed to get out.

"Am I attractive?" asked Ulquiorra.

_Do you want me to die of blood concentration in one spot of my body?!_ I wasn't sure if that was possible, but if not then I was going to be the first. "Well…um, I think…" Dammit, stop saying 'well' so much!

**'Need help?'**

_For once: yes. If you're any help at all, that is._

** 'That's mean.'**

_Oh, I thought that was a compliment. Of course it's mean._

** 'Don't get all moody on me. You need to come up with an answer.'** Coming out of my thoughts, I saw Ulquiorra patiently waiting for an answer. **'He's waiting~'**

_No shit._

_ '…That's it, I'm not helping you anymore.'_

"W-wait!" Only a few seconds later did I realize that I'd spoken out loud. I nervously laughed, giving Ulquiorra a small wave before making a circular motion around my temple with my index finger. "Don't ask."

"…Your answer?" he asked again.

"Impatient, much?"

"Alexia, answer." I could feel that gooey feeling building up in me again as he called me by my name. Again.

My gaze and facial expression was averted from him as I replied, "Y-yeah. You are."

"So that is why you called me cute?"

"…Mhmm." After all, even I didn't know my intentions for doing that…when was it? Yesterday—or before that? It didn't matter. Him offering a reason was good enough for me.

"You are incorrect," he deadpanned. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion and turned to face him.

"Why is that wrong?" I asked.

"Having jet black hair, white-as-paper skin, serpent eyes and tear streaks going down my cheeks isn't what most would classify as cute." He was subconsciously tracing one of his tear marks as he explained.

"Well, different people think different things are cute," I offered my support. "I think that cats are cute, and…well, you too." Not breaking our eye contact was difficult to do when you said things like that.

** 'Hooray. She said it.'**

_Yeah, and I didn't need your help._

** 'I gave you motivation. Without it, you would've kept silent.'**

_ …Shut up._

I watched as Ulquiorra continued to trace the tear; from his lower eyelid to the bottom of his cheek. As his finger neared the end of the tear, I noticed something on his neck.

"Ulquiorra, what happened…there…?" I murmured, crawling up next to him and pushing his head to the side a bit. A red mark was on his neck. Further inspecting it, I saw that it looked like it was in the shape of a hand. Realization hit me. _Grimmjow_.

"Do not worry, it was worse yesterday," he assured me, or rather, tried to. It just made me even more worried. How bad was it yesterday?

"Were you alright?" I questioned, gently touching the red mark. He flinched when my hand first made contact, but sighed and eventually got accustomed.

"Thanks to Szayel, I was. At first I had some trouble breathing," he told me, my eyes widening. He seemed to notice and assured me by saying, "It was not unbearable, but I would go into some cough attacks because of it. Szayel visited me before I fell asleep and gave me a gel to put on my…rash…and an herb to put in my drink in order to heal the bruise."

I crossed my legs and rested a hand on them, the other on my forehead. "I ought to make him apologize to you for bursting out in rage like that."

"It is partially my fault that he did so," Ulquiorra pointed out. "I taunted him even though my life was on the line. I am just as responsible for his actions as he is."

"Well…I guess you have a point," I agreed. He gave me a look I couldn't really define. "What? If that's what you think I'm not going to argue with you. Knowing you, your theories and concepts are hard to change by simply discussing."

"I suppose so. Though I thought you would've defended him." He sat up a bit and scooted over to his left, leaving some room on the right side of his pillow. For a second I only stared in confusion; then he patted the space next to him, motioning for me to sit there. I smiled and did exactly that, getting comfortable.

"So, just one more day."

"…It seems to be passing by too slow."

"Well, look at it this way: it'll be over before you can say…uh," I mumbled, thinking about what exactly I _could_ say. "…Trash?"

"Trash."

"…"

"It definitely isn't over," stated Ulquiorra.

"I was saying it figuratively," I said, rolling my eyes. "As in, not literally."

"I know," he informed. "But I wanted to do that anyways."

Once again, I found myself useless and bored. Then, as if on cue, Grimmjow stormed in without so much as a 'hey.' Plopping himself down in a chair, he glared at us.

"The fuck are you doing?" he grumbled, his voice tinged with venom. Very ineffective venom. "Why're you next to him?"

"I suppose I should be sitting in his lap, then?" I teased. His glare only turned harsher at my words and he scowled on top of that. "Hey, calm down. You know I'm joking around."

"Yeah, well I don't feel like fuckin' joking around, alright?" It was my turn to glare this time. "I don't like being waked up by other people."

"Okay, one: it's woken, you dumbass." His negative aura was rubbing off on me, and frankly, I didn't care. "Second, although you apologized yesterday, I can tell you're still mad."

If Ulquiorra was curious about what I was talking about, either he figured that he didn't need to know—_ouch. Wait, why 'ouch'?_—or he didn't want to interrupt our extremely friendly conversation.

"S-so what if I'm still…sorta pissed…!" As he'd talked, I'd gotten up and grabbed his arm, hauling him to his feet with a shitload of effort. My arm could've broken with the force I'd used, but he was surprisingly less heavy than I thought. "What the hell are you trying to do?"

"Get your act together," I hissed. Only he could hear me, and by the way he'd reacted—his minor scowl going full out and his muscles going tense—I knew that he was liking this less and less. Not that he liked it to begin with.

His resolve wavered for a moment, pondering over what he should do. Finally, he sighed and his muscles' tension decreased. Running a hand through his hair, he said, "We should get going. I have a whole schedule planned out today and I think you're going to—"

"She will stay here," Ulquiorra interrupted. I looked over at him; he had his blank stare, as always. But there was something else in it…need. Sort of hard to believe.

"We need to get going," he told Ulquiorra, taking my hand. Ulquiorra stopped him from pulling me out of the room, though.

"I fail to see a problem with leaving her here a bit longer."

"Yeah, well, I do."

"Well then, if that's the case, why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you have to take her with you?"

"Because."

"That is not a reason, Sexta."

"It is for me." Grimmjow tugged on my hand, making me stumble and almost fall into his chest; I was able to regain my balance before that could happen, to my relief. "Come on, let's get out of here already."

"Wait!" I said, trying to pry myself out of his grasp. This was too much. I felt like the person in the middle—one person tugging me to the left while the other pulled to my right.

"No. We're leaving, _now_," Grimmjow hissed, letting go of my hand but pulling even harder on my arm. I almost cried out in pain. Realizing what he'd done, his expression softened apologetically and he let go.

I was just about done forgiving him.

"Are you alright?" Ulquiorra's voice somewhat calmed me, only a little. I nodded stiffly, rubbing my sore arm. Great, now both Ulquiorra _and_ I had bruises from Grimmjow.

"Yeah, I guess I'm alright now," I halfheartedly assured him. He was staring at the evident bruise beginning to form and I wished I'd worn my sweater long with my black button-up shirt that only covered up to my shoulders, leggings and denim skirt with converse.

Great, now I'm going fashionista on you. Sorry about that.

"Listen, I'm sorry about what I did," said Grimmjow, not sounding sorry at all. "Can we just go now?"

I crossed my arms and looked at him. It wasn't a glare or any type of facial expression that conveyed a message—it was just…a look. "I think I'm going to stay here for a little while longer."

Grimmjow's eyes narrowed. "I don't believe you."

"Well, you'd better start, cause this isn't some fantasy," I reminded him, turning my back and sitting down on the edge of Ulquiorra's bed. Grimmjow shot Ulquiorra and I a look before storming out and slamming the door with twenty times the amount of force Nnoitora had used.

Damn, these doors were really durable.

I grew restless after a few seconds (not to mention that I was still pissed out of my mind). "Honestly, he's so possessive when it comes to me being around other people," I complained, sitting down on the computer chair angrily and starting to spin around in it.

"Are we not all somewhat possessive?" asked Ulquiorra, tilting his head to the side. "Whether it is a person, animal or any thing, we feel a bit of possessiveness of that thing. Just that Grimmjow's possessiveness combined with his destructiveness and recklessness is not something one would like to encounter."

"Yeah, I figured that one out first-hand," I muttered, slowly coming to a stop. It took a while to drive the still-spinning sensation out of my head before I got up and flopped down on the bed, curling up in a fetal position. "Let me guess: you don't know why you wanted me to stay this time, either."

"You know me well," he responded. "But I do not feel a need to seek a reason to converse."

"…Ulquiorra, how're you feeling today?" I asked, trying to sound as innocently curious as possible. In fact, I'd been trying to figure out what he was like today—definitely not lust (thank god), so it was either wrath or greed. If it was Grimmjow whom I had to analyze, the answer would be obvious. He _did_ almost break my arm. That animalistic look in his eyes had been there for most of the time, except for when he'd realized that he'd hurt me.

Of course, Ulquiorra was who I was supposed to be analyzing. It didn't take much to observe Grimmjow, if he was a human his social security number would be tattooed on his forehead.

There was that one point where I'd seen a 'need' in Ulquiorra's eyes, as if desiring something…me? That was foolish. Anyways…well, need was closer to greed than wrath. And I guess you could say Ulquiorra was being selfish…

** 'Please, if anyone's being selfish it's Grimmjow.'**

_Aww, I thought you died._

** 'That would've been just awesome, but I'm afraid I'm not that old yet and you're not as boring as I thought. Anyways, I thought I'd help you out with this.'**

I inwardly sighed. _I guess you can, if that means that you'll go away after you do._

**'Keep dreaming.'** I swear I could feel the roll of her eyes. **'But I'll try not to interfere when I'm not needed.'**

_You've been doing that perfectly lately, _I noted sarcastically.

** 'I know, right?'**

_ …Never should've said anything._

** 'Hey, did you even hear what Ulquiorra just said?'**

_ …Shit, no._

"Sorry, Ulquiorra, I sorta spaced ou—what are you d-doing?" I said surprisedly. His face was in a very, very close range with mine, probably a few inches away. _Shit, what if it _is_ lust? What's he going to do now? What am I supposed to do!?_

** 'Geez. If I could, I'd slap you right now.'**

_Shut up! Don't you see what's happening!? _The nostalgia from that day two weeks ago replayed in my mind. But it definitely wasn't good nostalgia.

I heard a sigh. **'Just see how it plays out. Seriously, you're turning into Orihi—'**

_DON'T EVEN START TO COMPARE ME WITH THAT BITCH!_

** '…Well, now you're back to your normal self.'**

"You seemed to be in deep thought," he said nonchalantly. "I thought that if I inspected your facial expression in a more detailed way, I could get an idea of what you were thinking about."

I sighed and laughed nervously. That was an extremely great relief. "Oh, that's it?"

"What else did you expect?"

"N-nothing, really!" I assured, waving my arms frantically. "But I never heard your answer to my question."

"I never answered," he remarked, making me sweat drop. "But I am glad you asked."

"Why's that…?" I stiffened when I felt one of Ulquiorra's hands make its way up to my face, playing around with a strand of my hair. A blush gradually made its way to my face.

"Remember what I had said about possessiveness?" I nodded meekly and silently grasped his hand and brought it away from my face. "Well, I am also possessive about you."

What the hell? What was I supposed to make out of this? _Hey, what's supposed to happen now?_

** '…Why're you asking me?'** She sounded just as panicked as I was.

"I feel that I need to protect you at all costs. Seeing you being hurt by him like that—" for a moment he let a minor scowl cross his face for a second before it disappeared, "—if I could kill him, I probably would've." Wrath seemed a little more dominant now.

"Ulquiorra…what do you feel right now?" I put some space between us, physically.

"It doesn't feel like I should be, but…I feel excessive want for the things I already have. There are things I want all to myself."

Greed. Definitely. "I don't think this's as bad as you think," I tried to convince him. "Everyone feels this in a way. Someone told me that today," I nudged his shoulder and smiled.

"Your smile…" Not blushing was impossible. "You're like…a jewel."

_Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit._ I immediately got up from the bed. "U-ulquiorra, I'm g-going to go n-now."

"I'll see you tomorrow."

I left without responding.

[#]#[#]#[#]#[#]#[#]#[#]#[#]#[

Me: (Looks over shoulder)

Alexia: Holy crap…where is he…

Ulquiorra and Grimmjow: ?

Alexia and I: Ahhhhh!

Grimmjow: The fuck is going on!?

Ulquiorra: What is—

Me: I'm doing to lose sleep over this -.-' stupid…

Alexia: He reminds me of Nnoitora, appearing out of nowhere and trying to kill you (shivers)

Grimmjow: Let me get this straight: you have to collect pieces of paper…

Ulquiorra: While trying to escape from a man named Slenderman?

Me: T-T Yeah. You got the gist.

Alexia: S-some people think he's real…

Me: I swear, if my writing pace slows down even more after this -.-' oh, yeah; guys, I need you to vote on the poll I've posted on my profile T_T I'm going into half-harsh mode. Only five people in total have voted.

Grimmjow: That's three since last week.

Alexia: In order to know the effective results we need to have more voters T_T

Ulquiorra: Also, please review.

Me: I'm going to keep the poll up for two more weeks, so hurry up, please!

Alexia: See ya later!


	12. He's not behind me…

Alexia: Attention!

Ulquiorra: There is something UlquiorrArekushia4 would like to announce.

Grimmjow: T_T?

Me: If any of you guys noticed…Alexia's wardrobe accidentally changed in the last chapter -.-' she was supposed to be wearing her PJs all day but I changed it randomly...

Alexia: Seriously, I was freaking out when I saw that I was suddenly wearing those clothes o.O

Me: So, sorry about any confusion on that ^_^ She's officially wearing the black shirt, leggings and denim skirt.

Grimmjow: …Can ya get to the actual chapter now?

Me: Someone's impatient.

Alexia: It's probably because of what you put in this chapter (glares)

Ulquiorra: ?

Me: Oh, shut up. Nothing really happens and you know it…maybe…

Alexia: T_T'

Me: Well, let's not keep the readers waiting!

( T_T)＼(^-^ )

**DAY SIX, PART TWO**

_What the hell was that?_

Calming my breath was an extremely hard thing to do at the moment. The scene played out a thousand times over; his expression, his hand, his words.

_Like a jewel._

_ All to myself._

_ Want for the things I can't have._

_ Also possessive about you._

A shaky breath made its way out of my lips as I covered my face in my hands. My heartbeat was so loud. It sounded like someone was pounding on my head with a brick. Sort of felt like it, too.

"Alexia?" Fear. It completely overrode my previous feelings…whatever they were. "What happened in there?" I felt arms wrap around me and desperately hugged back.

"I just got…really emotional…I'm not sure if you'd understand, though." Saying this to Grimmjow was against what I originally wanted to tell him. I wanted to confess and tell him that I didn't want to continue dating him (if you could even call it that), that I felt like I was using him. He had all the reason to get mad at me, yell at me and hurt me. After all, I was doing the same.

Thankfully, I wasn't shedding tears. There wasn't motivation to do that in the first place—in my opinion, at least.

"I understand what being emotional is, you dummy," Grimmjow answered. He retreated slowly and I willed myself to also do so. "…Tell me what happened."

Okay, so now I had to lie even more. I hated people who lied, but it wasn't like I was about to say, 'Well, Ulquiorra's made physical contact with me several times now and I'm just a bit afraid of what your reaction would be. You know…ya might just kill me, seeing how you almost ripped my arm off today.'

"I…I'm not ready to talk about it," I hesitantly said. "It's complicated." Better than lying, but I knew he'd ask me about it later on.

He stared intently at me for a few moments. I cleared my throat and he snapped out of his trance. We intertwined our hands (more like he did) and Grimmjow led me down the hall. "Don't worry, I'll take your mind off of…uh, whatever you're thinking." He saw a smile break onto my face, although I tried to hide it. "See? You're already shining."

"Oh, shut it." Just another weakness: it was hard for me to wipe a smile off my face once it already appeared. "Where are we going?" It seemed like our anger towards each other had dissolved into nothing. Almost too good to be true.

"Um…," he fished around the pocket of his hakama and brought out a piece of paper and something that looked like a compass. Unfolding the paper, he read the list of things written. "Well, I thought we could explore this shithole."

I'm pretty sure that wasn't the list. "Er, you certainly make it sound interesting."

"You know what I mean," he squeezed my hand, one of his natural smiles appearing. "Maybe we'll finally be able to navigate ourselves around here for once."

"So, the mall?" I asked, seeing him nod in response. "What about outside of Las Noches?"

"You mean the desert outside?"

"Yeah."

"It's pretty dangerous out there…," he warned me. "You wouldn't stand a chance."

"Isn't that why I'm with you?" I reminded him with a roll of my eyes. "What happened with that 'knight in shining armor' thing you said a few days ago?" I could see the mini mall in the distance, the bright lights of the stores illuminating the path to it.

**'Don't go towards the light…'**

_Says the person that bailed out when I actually needed them._

**'S-s'not my fault, I didn't know he was going to say shit that deep!'**

"You need anything from the stores?" Grimmjow asked, diverting my attention. I shook my head quickly. "Okaaaay…someone's excited."

"It's not that, I just—" He cut me off with a kiss. Surprisingly, I didn't blush when his arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me closer. Sooner or later, though, he realized we weren't going to stand out here all day and let me go, a blush of his own adorning his face.

"I didn't feel your response," he noted seriously. I averted my eyes from his. "Well…let's go, then." I took that last sentence to my advantage.

"No shit, I thought we were going to have a campout here," I remarked, smirking. His feral grin took over.

"Shut up."

We walked the countless stores and checked out what they had to offer. Only a few caught my attention. One that sold endless amounts of art supplies was the main one that had captured my interest. I took countless sketchbooks, colored pencils, watercolors, charcoal pencils, acrylic paint, sculpting stools and some sculpting clay. When we left that store we already had our hands half-full. Grimmjow was carrying an easel and several palettes while I carried the rest, which we had to put onto a cart.

Blame my artistic abilities.

The other store…nearly gave me a heart attack. Instruments everywhere in sight; flutes, guitars, a piano, drums, trumpets, saxophones, bells, cellos, violas, electric guitars, xylophones, accordions, clarinets, banjos, ukulele, and in one corner of the room…at least ten (yes, that's a lot of violins, in my opinion) different and unique violins.

"Woah, did something paralyze you?" Grimmjow teased. I didn't respond, fighting the urge to run to the violins and grab them all. Cause of death by tripping over instruments wasn't what I'd call an ideal death.

I analyzed all the violins. A white one, black, shiny, wood, electric, red, blue, green, pink, one with patterns of flames, and a black one with white stenciled roses. _That one_. I carefully reached up for it and successfully obtained it—with Grimmjow's help at one point. Positioning the bow on my shoulder and fixing my posture, I plucked at one of the strings before I got to using the bow.

Two very critical words.

Horrible. Tuning.

"That thing…what does it do?" asked Grimmjow curiously.

"It's supposed to make music, but the way it is now'll do nothing to make it," I complained, tuning it myself. _G…no, that sounds like E…there. Then C…perfect. String A seems like another G…then E…sorta more like a D…ok, there!_ "Could you hand me the bow?"

He did so and I applied rosin to it before getting in position. It had been so long since I'd last held a violin…I missed it so much.

"Somebody's a little too into this," Grimmjow smirked. Sparing a second to glare at him, he put his hands up in apology. "Jus' saying."

"Just shut up and listen," I commanded. Then, in a hushed whisper that only I could hear, I said, "D, C-B-A-G, A-G, D-E-G…" At the same time, I played out the melody of the song, the feel of the violin's tune right by my ear giving me an adrenaline rush. When I got the hang of the rhythm, I reveled the song I was playing. 'Here to Stay.'

I closed my eyes, the melody pictured in my head. A, B, C, F…E… I'd finally found something to pass the time in this boring ass place.

When I opened my eyes after finishing the song, I looked around in confusion as I set the violin on the cart of art supplies. Grimmjow was nowhere in sight. "Grimm?" All of a sudden, arms wrapped around my neck and pulled me close to a body.

"That was cool," Grimmjow's refreshing voice whispered into my ear. A small smile crossed my face before it was replaced with a frown. "So, what do you feel like doing now?" His breath fanned across my ear.

I didn't react.

He planted a kiss on my jaw, then worked his way around me until we were face-to-face.

I didn't react.

Looking me in the eyes, he asked, "Are you okay?" I furrowed my eyebrows in thought.

I almost didn't react.

But I needed to ask him before something else happened. It was eating away at me. "Grimmjow…can I ask you something?"

"Like what?" he asked me, confusion clear as day. There was some suspicion in his expression, too.

"Your dreams," I took the plunge. "What are they about?"

His eyes widened. "W-why do you ask?"

"I want to know," I said, not giving him an exact reason. "I already asked you yesterday but you seemed keen on not telling me. If…," I hesitated before continuing, "If our relationship is going to last then we can't keep secrets from each other." It was technically true, but a lie at the same time. By now I was pretty much convinced that our relationship wasn't going to last, but I couldn't tell him that, when he was convinced of his love for me. Also, he wasn't the only one keeping secrets.

"They're…," he started, "They're just some of my thoughts, okay? They don't really make sense, so I can't explain. If I tried…you wouldn't understand."

"You're a terrible liar," I commented as casually as possible, shrugging myself out of his embrace. On the inside, I was seething with anger. "Come on, there's a lot more to see, right?"

"Hey, don't be so sensitive," Grimmjow urged me to calm down.

"I'm not being sensitive." I hoped that didn't sound too confident.

"Heh, I'm not the only one who's a horrible liar," Grimmjow teased. I flicked him off. "Why are my dreams important to you, anyways?"

'Oh, I don't know…maybe because I hear you talking in your sleep and mentioning Pantera and I?' I almost did say that, but decided against it at the last second. "Curiosity. And sometimes you say stuff in your dreams, but I can't really make it out."

Grimmjow sighed. In relief or something else, I wasn't sure. "Ah, ok."

From that store, we scoped out the rest of the mini mall. Surprisingly, we didn't get lost. We would've if it hadn't been for that compass that Grimmjow had; it was like having mapquest in the palm of your hand. Again, thank Szayel for that.

"There's not a lot left to see…what time is it?" asked Grimmjow. Checking my watch, I saw that the time had passed quicker than I thought.

"It's 7:12 p.m.," I informed. This mini mall was more like an it's-a-lot-bigger-than-you-think mall. "Should probably start heading back, shouldn't we?"

"…Uh…well, I was thinking that…," Grimmjow was unable to form a complete sentence. He saw me staring curiously at him and blushed, making me wonder what he was thinking. "Would you…er, what I should say is…"

"Grimmjow, you're starting to annoy me~," I warned him, flicking his nose. "Hurry up, what do you want to do?"

"About those…hot springs…," he tried again. This time, I had an idea of what he was trying to say.

But I wasn't going to stop there.

"What about them?" I said innocently, smirking when he knew what I was trying to do. "You're so obvious."

"Are you saying that you want to go into the hot springs with me?"

Wait.

"W-what? I thought that y-you just w-wanted to visit them!" I hastily disagreed, growing nervous when Grimmjow threw in a smirk of his own. _Crap, I should've really thought about it before answering like that!_

**'Well, you've gotten yourself into the biggest shithole possible.'**

_Shut up, shut up, you think I don't know that!?_ I heard a chuckle and anger coursed through me. _You take this as some kind of joke?_

**'…Pretty much.'**

_You bitch._

**'I never said that I didn't give a crap, I just find your reaction amusing. You're overreacting way too much lately.'**

_A lot of crazy shit has been happening lately, too, if you haven't noticed._

Following her advice, I took a deep breath and calmed myself down. "Grimmjow, I never gave a second thought to what you might've been thinking; I wasn't expecting that, and even if I did I'd decline your…offer," I explained. He was listening without complaint, his face almost as serious as Ulquiorra's.

All that supposed seriousness went down the drain as a grin broke onto his face.

"That's too bad, isn't it?" said Grimmjow in a teasing manner. "Too bad for you, that is."

"Why?" I skeptically asked, raising an eyebrow. He took a step closer to me, causing me to take a step backwards. "Answer me." My voice conveyed the obvious: I was nervous, scared even.

"I want to use my hour." Grimmjow took hold of my chin and leaned down on me for a kiss, but I stepped back in shock. _His hour…holy shit, he still remembered that bet we'd made?_ "Everything I say is law, now."

"N-no way!" It didn't help that I knew he was right in every aspect.

"You were asking for it," he burst out in laughter, earning a glare from me. "So, you're going with me to the hot springs?"

"Why're you asking me if you know I don't have a fucking choice?" I complained, crossing my arms. Stupid, I scolded myself. You never should've made that bet.

"Mm, you do have a point there," his grin toned down a little but was still evident. He only left a flash of his image before he reappeared behind me. I turned in surprise.

"Woa—hey, let me down!" I exclaimed as he put his hands on my waist and hoisted me over his shoulder. "Grimmjow, you bastard!"

"That's me."

"Last time I checked, you didn't become a hollow by being born of two unmarried people."

"What're you talking about?" He asked, his confidence faltering for a moment.

"That's pretty much what a bastard is," I explained in amusement. "Then again, with the way Aizen keeps an eye on you, he could qualify as your father—" I couldn't go any further without laughing. Then I suddenly felt a falling sensation and instinctively grabbed Grimmjow's shoulders to avoid actually doing that. My heartbeat returned to normal, and I glared at Grimmjow and his smug grin. "Asshole."

"'King' is more like it," advised Grimmjow. His words were definitely mocking mine when I'd first lost the bet.

"…"

"Or I could make you go into the same hot spring as I do, if you want."

"Y-you mean we're not going into the same one?" Surprise launched a sneak attack on me. Someone should've been shooting fireworks into the sky right about now, throwing a celebration.

"I guess not," he responded.

I facepalmed. "If you'd told me that sooner I wouldn't have objected."

"That stings," Grimmjow's eyes narrowed in mock hurt. Which resulted in a warm but cunning smile from me.

"I know."

We left it at that and decided to get going. Not wanting to have an awkward silence, I said, "You know, for a king you're pretty controllable." Grimmjow rolled his eyes and in the blink of an eye, stole a kiss from me. My eyes widened and I immediately pulled away, a blush creeping up my face. It was best to just walk away at these moments. Walk away…really fast.

"Said king also has a lot of charisma."

Oh, shut the hell up.

At last, we finally reached the hot springs. It was technically like an indoor water park. Glass walls surrounded the two contiguous springs, one for women and the other for men. Thank god.

"You'll go over to the dressing room and…," Grimmjow hesitated, letting me know what he was hinting at before continuing, "come back in no more than fifteen minutes."

"Pushy."

"King's orders." An annoyed smirk made its way to my face.

"Fine," not sparing him a second glance as I walked off to the rooms. It was then that everything hit me.

A hot spring. With Grimmjow.

**'Well, he technically isn't going to be with you.'**

_ It doesn't take a lot of effort to walk over to the other side. With that damn steam, he could easily sneak up on me._

** 'Steaming water does not only serve the purpose of relaxing you.'**

_What do you mean?_

** 'Self-defense~'**

_Oh_. That was actually a good idea. _But I don't want to hurt Grimmjow to the point where he's blind._

** 'Awww.'**

I sweat dropped. _You have a very…imaginative…mind._

**'Hey, just a figment of yours.'**

Sighing, I looked in a mirror. Grimmjow's words…'You'll go over to the dressing room and…come back in no more than fifteen minutes,' were they? An idea hit me.

Careless, careless Grimmjow.

The rest of the time, I sat down on a bench in the corner of the room and waited. And waited. Once I'd decided that enough time had passed, I walked out, fully clothed. After I went to the spot where I'd left Grimmjow and didn't see him, I went off to look for him.

"Grimmjow…come out, come out, wherever you are…," I murmured. There was a sign up ahead.

**Men**

**Left**

**Women**

**Right**

I hesitated for a moment. He was probably already inside the hot spring for men, the question was: should _I_ go there? The men's section was the men's section; it clearly wasn't for the opposite sex. _Oh well,_ I thought as I headed to the left.

My eyesight was hindered by the vapor coming from every direction. Breathing through my nose caused me to feel a bit drowsy, so I resorted to breathing in through my mouth and exhaling from my nose. I tensed up. Someone was behind me…no, to my left. Maybe in front of me, actually.

"Alexia," a eerie voice whispered in my left ear. I yelped and immediately took a few steps away, only to bump into something. "Alexi…"

"What the fuck!?" I exclaimed, almost tripping over my feet to get away. "Grimmjow, this isn't funny!" Horror was never my forte, and with people constantly trying to scare the shit out of me, that wasn't going to change anytime soon.

Laughter erupted behind me and arms wrapped around my waist. I was lifted in the air. "Hey, why are you still wearing your clothes?" Grimmjow asked. Thoughts came into my mind, the main one being:

Please tell me that Grimmjow isn't completely naked.

"I swear, Grimmjow, if you don't have some type of covering on you right now—!"

"Does a towel count?" he asked, giving me a hug and hence letting me feel his bare skin. Thank god I didn't take off my clothes. "It's around my waist, so you should be careful to not let it fall."

"Okay, now let me go!" I breathed out in a gasp as he flipped me around and carried me bridal style toward the water. Shit, he better not be doing what I think he's about to—

He stopped abruptly before dropping me into the hot spring's waters.

I knew it.

The water was burning me up—or so it seemed. In reality I was just probably having a hard time adjusting to the sudden change in temperature. A few seconds in, I resurfaced from the water, sputtering and coughing.

"G-grimmj-jow, you b-bastard!" I shouted, blindly splashing water and hoping it would hit him. Giving an exasperated sigh, I rubbed my eyes and slowly opened them after I felt comfortable. Another weakness: sensitive eyes.

Cackling laughter was heard, once again, behind me. Grimmjow's eyes were watering when I turned to face him, my hair plastered to my face and my clothes completely soaked.

**'Pfft…'**

_Oh my god, not you too._

**'Ahaha! That was a pretty good one,'** her voice was hearty. **'I seriously felt like laughing the moment you were thrown in, but I managed to hold it in until now…somehow, I did.'**

_Thanks for making me feel like the center of attention_, sarcasm dripped from my thoughts.

** 'Hehe, you're welcome.'**

She seriously wasn't helping.

"Well, if you don't obey the king's orders, you'll face punishment," he said cunningly. "That was a minor one…who knows what a major one is like."

My eye twitched. "I don't want to find out." I angrily parted the hair that was in the way of my face and silently thanked my taste in fashion for liking darker colors; otherwise I might've ended up wearing a white shirt, and then Grimmjow would've been able to see my…undergarments. My face reddened slightly at the thought.

As if reading my mind, Grimmjow remarked, "Why don't you wear white? I could've gotten more of a view with clothes that color."

At the moment I was extremely glad he hadn't made that into a command.

"My god, you're being a huge perv today," I grumbled, submerging in the water up to my chin. While underwater, I positioned my hands just under the water in front of me, palms up, and waited for the perfect opportunity.

"Maybe the king wants to be a perv, is there a problem with that?" he sook my answer, taking a step toward me. It was then that it hit me.

This time Grimmjow _is_ naked.

"What, didya finally realize how much clothes I'm wearing?" his voice taunted me and he vanished from my sight, only to appear to my right, his face less than an inch away from my ear. "Do I need to spell it out for ya?"

"G-get away!" I protested. Apparently he was as deaf as he was…well, deaf, because he disappeared again. Confusion and suspicion dawned upon me when I noticed that he still hadn't shown himself. "Hey, where'd you go…?" An outline of him could be seen in the distance, but it didn't look like he was moving.

My clothes weighed me down a bit as I waded thought the hot water, merging bit by bit. It seemed like if I got closer to Grimmjow, he'd just go farther away.

"Fooled ya."

A yelp escaped my mouth as I was pulled back and in the process, tripped and fell on top of Grimmjow. We both splashed around, regaining our footing and eyesight moments later. As soon as we composed ourselves, I shot a death glare at Grimmjow.

"You're not a king, you're a damn tyrant," I mumbled.

"Speaking of kings, I have another order for you," he informed me, my eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Don't look at me like that, it's not that bad."

"Your definition of bad is probably the polar opposite of mine."

"Anyways," he continued, ignoring me completely, "I want you to do two things: first, you need to let me hold you for five minutes, and second…you need to give me a massage."

"…" Not saying 'That's it?' was difficult to accomplish. Better keeping it in than jinxing it. "Which are you planning to make me do first?"

"Well, me being the generous being that I am, why don't you choose?" he suggested in a you're-lucky-I'm-actually-giving-you-a-choice manner.

"Uh…"

"Come on, it's just two choices: the good or the better?"

In my opinion, it should've been 'bad or worse.'

"…Just pick one for me," my response was half-hearted and dreading. I immediately regretted it.

He snaked an arm around my waist and pulled me close to him, making me instinctively try to put some space between us by placing my hands on the sides of his stomach, near his hollow hole. Anything but there, I thought. He will not make contact with me there.

Grimmjow's breath hitched when my hands put pressure onto his sides, massaging the area there with my thumbs. "Wha—"

"Why not both?" I sheepishly suggested. "I'm pretty good at massages, anyways. I can take away all that stress…in exchange for an answer."

"What question are you proposing, Princess?" He noticed my slightly annoyed expression and shrugged in apology.

"A question that you have to answer, no matter what." A skeptical look crossed his face.

"Nope."

_ …Eh? _"Why…"

"You don't question the king's orders," Grimmjow reminded me, although I was suspecting that our bet wasn't the only reason he'd neglected my offer. "You still have to give me my massage, though." His small frown turned into a grin, but it seemed somewhat forced.

"Okay…um, turn around so I can work on your shoulders," I instructed. While undoing the knots and bundles of nerves (there were a lot of them, surprisingly; Grimmjow didn't seem like the type to worry much), I closed my eyes. He's not naked. He's wearing clothes. A massage is a massage, nothing more.

It was pretty easy to convince myself of that. Sometimes I was way too gullible.

Grimmjow sighed contentedly, turning around while I was still working on him. "You are good at this," he complimented, inching up to me and grabbing a lock of my hair gently. He sniffed at it before slowly sliding his fingers up to my face, tracing the features of me.

All of a sudden, an image shoved all thoughts of Grimmjow away. Instead, it was Ulquiorra who was in the hot springs with me, fiddling with my hair. He was the one who pressed our foreheads together. And he was the one who pressed his lips against mine, tongue entering my mouth as he pushed me up against an artificial rock (could've been real, but I wasn't exactly that attentive to my surroundings at the moment) and hungrily grinded against me. If possible, my blush grew. Small thoughts were all I could manage at the moment.

_Grimmjow…_

_ Ulquiorra…_

_ Kissing._

_ Grinding…damn it._

_ Stop this._

"Grimmjow…" I was glad I was still able to tell it was him. This was so wrong—I was seeing Ulquiorra, not Grimmjow—disgusting. I felt like making Grimmjow hit me again for what I was thinking. "Could y-you…get off for a s-second?"

The fear in my voice was incredibly evident, and he noticed it, too. For once, he heeded and looked at me worriedly. "Are you okay?"

_No. Not at all._

"Well, yes…I mean, it's not that there's something wrong with me, I just…er…" How the hell was I supposed to tell him what I was imagining? He wouldn't forgive me; hell, he'd probably drown me in here if he got his hands on me. Which he already did. "I already told you…we need to keep a pace. Take it slowly."

The hunger in his eyes fought Grimmjow for a few moments; then it faded and he sighed tiredly. "And the _king_ is supposed to be the commanding officer right now." He gave me space, but not before he kissed me again.

"Yeah, well, even a king can be compassionate of his subjects," I said. "And they can also not grind their pelvis onto their girlfriends." He snickered.

"That's what you were really worrying about, wasn't it? I wasn't planning to do more than that, I promise."

A skeptical look crossed my features. "I'm not sure how much convincing it would take for me to believe that." I let a nervous chuckle out when he sweat dropped.

"Well, we should probably get going," he realized. I looked at him. Like, _really_ looked at him; the water made his unruly sky blue hair go down in the way of his cyan eyes, creating something akin to bangs. His hollow hole was half-submerged in the water. The drops and trails the water was leaving on his tan torso was making each of his muscles defined, even though I suspected he wasn't intending to. In short, he looked like…most women's dream guy.

Most women's. Not sure where that placed me.

"There something interesting about my chest?" Grimmjow whispered in my ear. Damn, I didn't even notice him creeping up on me. Though, I was somewhat grateful of him for interrupting my thoughts. At that moment I'd been thinking about how, in time, he'd have a scar on that chest. He wouldn't have a left arm to hold me. My eyes started to get a stinging sensation.

I had shed some tears when I watched him get sliced so critically by that spoon-headed bastard. But there was always the chance that he was still alive. Ulquiorra, on the other hand, was a different case altogether…my eyes watered and I submerged myself in the water, surprising Grimmjow. Blame goes to the hot springs.

I let out almost all my breath and sank to the bottom. The water made my ears pop and I reveled in the silence. There had to be some way to breathe underwater...and live there as well. That would've made my life complete. I calmed my muscles and forgot about Ulquiorra and Grimmjow and dying. _Forget the scars and ashes_. Thinking about all that made me forget that I was a human being. Grimmjow hastily grabbed the underside of my arms and lifted me out of the water.

"What the hell are you trying to do!?" He exclaimed, his expression telling me that he was clearly pissed. "I thought you were drowning!"

"Stupid, if I was drowning I'd put up a fight," I said, giving him a warm smile. "I'm not gonna die that easily." I sighed contentedly before making my way out of the water. Grimmjow followed, close behind…a little too close. Breaking into a run, I grabbed a towel and threw it in his direction. With my eyes shut my aim wasn't going to be accurate, of course.

"Quick thinking, although I wanted to surprise you," he smirked. Well, I couldn't see his face but you could practically hear the I'm-trying-not-to-laugh-my-ass-off tone his voice held. "It's okay now, you've lost your chance to see my awesome—"

"Grimmjow, I do not want to hear it," I grumbled, putting my hands over my ears. Hesitating in my doubts, I slowly turned around and was incredibly thankful to see that the towel was indeed around his waist, and also covering just enough of his hips and legs. My heartbeat returned to normal. "Uh…I'm not planning on walking around with my clothes soaking wet." I gestured to my outfit with my hand.

"You want a towel, too?" his mocking voice teased as my eyes widened, again. Seriously, one day they were going to jump out of their sockets from how many times I've been surprised.

"No." Commence project Be As Calm As Ulquiorra, For Once. "I'll have to go back into those dressing rooms, see if there's any clothes there."

"I'll go wi—"

"No, thank you," I chimed before he could finish.

"That's what I should be telling you," countered Grimmjow. "My hour isn't over yet, so I still get to do whatever I feel like doing without getting scolded for it." Meanwhile, I'd pretty much forgotten about that.

"You're like an overprotective parent," I complained, putting a hand on the hip of my damp denim skirt. "But ten times as worse."

Surprisingly enough, he didn't follow me, but stood right outside of the room. I made sure a shoe was within arm's each in case he decided to intrude. So much for that project.

The room was filled with lockers the size of shoe boxes, and each one had a padlock. Sighing, I randomly chose a lock and tried to figure out the combination, as if it was that easy. On cue, the lock popped open once I had turned it to the right for the last time.

Maybe it was that easy.

The only thing inside the locker was something that looked like a robe. Once I took it out and looked closer, I discovered that it was more of a kimono than a robe. It was a pale blue, with a cherry blossom branch making its way up from the bottom. Two hummingbirds adorned the area below the chest. Shrugging, I thought, _I guess I'll just have to put this on…_

** 'Stop trying to act like you're not excited about wearing this,'** her voice appeared again, which earned her a roll of my eyes.

_Okay, so I'm a little—_

**'More like a lot.'**

Sighing, I got out of my damp clothes with a struggle. There was a cabinet of sorts in the back of the room; walking over, I saw that there were different articles of clothing in each drawer. Lucky me—in one, there were clean…undergarments. Back to the matter at hand. _I like kimonos, so what? They look nice on me, they're comfortable_ (my opinion, although others probably disagree) _and they give me this sense of…_

**'Dignity?'**

…Ah, pretty much, I agreed as I found some garments and put them on, then proceeded to put on the kimono. In truth, I'd only put on a kimono twice. The process took up a few minutes for me and since I wasn't getting any help it only took longer. But finally, I had it on. It was slightly stiff, but I would get accustomed to it gradually.

The atmosphere was mellow as I walked out. Fortunately—I didn't really care—the waraji sandals I had found in another cabinet were better suited to the kimono than my converse. The kimono's length covered most of my feet anyways.

Grimmjow suddenly appeared in front of me and I jumped a mile into the air. "You really have something for wanting to startle me today, don't you?" I said skeptically as I side stepped and continued walking, him following behind.

"Somebody give you a makeover while you were in there?" Grimmjow taunted. I looked down in embarrassment.

"Seeing as how I'm not going to keep wearing my soaking-wet clothes," I sent him a glare and motioned to the clothes folded in a towel that I was carrying before continuing, "This was all I could find." After a while, I looked up again; I saw that he was in his usual uniform, yet his damp hair was still dangling low. Almost like his hair had grown longer, such as Ichigo had when going into the final Getsugaten—

Ahem.

Point made, his hair was a little longer.

Once Grimmjow had made a few more comments about my hair and almost made me push him back into the water, we left and started to head back to my room, pulling along the cart, with the help of the compass.

Something caught my attention when we were on our way back, though. A store we were passing by. It was impossible to not see the neon pastel-colored walls and small packets of…something, all over the walls as if it was the Home Depot.

"What is this place?" I asked and started to walk in. Hundreds of different scents attacked my sense of smell the moment I opened the door.

"I'm not sure," he admitted. "I haven't been through here before. Smells good, though."

"Mhmm," I agreed in a half-trance. With me using my sense of smell to direct myself, I felt like a bloodhound or German Shepard. Should probably stop.

My heartbeat quickened when I realized what was hanging on the walls. There were so many of them, I didn't know which to choose as I near a wall and scanned through them. Then I hit the jackpot. There were only three, but they'd have to do.

After all, I love tea.

Especially chamomile.

"Uh, what are you doing?" asked Grimmjow curiously, an eyebrow raised.

"Aizen apparently thinks that he should keep all these herbs here and _not_ use them. Drinking boiled water? _Seriously_?" I muttered, completely ignoring Grimmjow. To hell with sounding/looking crazy, I already was. "Such a waste."

"You're talking to yourself…sorta makes you look crazy," Grimmjow read my thoughts.

** 'Oh, she doesn't just talk to herself.'**

_ …Hm._

**'You need to snap out of it. Geez, tea to you is like meth to an addict.'**

_So you've noticed_, I mentally rolled my eyes (if that was even possible).

"Well, Grimmjow; to answer your question, this is what humans call herbs," I sounded as if I was about to give a lecture. Don't doubt it. "When you boil water, you usually put one of these in the water. They basically flavor the water, hence you're not just drinking boiled water…when I make chamomile—"

"Jam or meal?"

"Cha—mo—mile. I add honey and lime. It tastes really good…" Right on cue, my stomach growled. A nervous laugh came from both Grimmjow and I. "I should probably shut up."

"I could help you with that," Grimmjow remarked as I neared him to throw the three packets of herbs in, taking a cautionary step away from him once I figured out what he was hinting at.

"Keep a pace, Grimm."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," he brushed it off. Both of us stared at each other in surprise when we heard voices not far from us. He ushered me inside a store across from the one I'd just been in. Endless racks of clothes expanded in rows and were cluttered, as if a torpedo had torn through. We were brushing noses as we merged ourselves with the clothes and hid ourselves.

"Hey, the cart…" I started to ask, then a finger was put up to my lips while the other hand pointed to Grimmjow's left. Glancing quickly, I saw the cart also hidden among the clothes. I nodded in recognition. "You can take your finger off of my mouth now." He retreated his finger, and we both fell silent as the voices could be heard clearly.

"…Master Nnoitora, it's just that—"

"You think I give a damn!? You're a fuckin' pawn, Tesla!"

"Master, this is getting to be too—"

"Too much! That's what you're gonna say, right? Well guess what, Tesla? Nobody. Fucking. Cares." Things were silent for a moment, but a scuffle of feet could be heard, followed by a punch. "Get the hell away from me!"

"…Master…what are your actual feelings for Alexia?" Tesla's voice was shaky, every drop of fear detectable even without seeing his expression. Grimmjow tensed next to me. The animalistic look was back. I leaned into him and looked into his eyes, making him divert his attention.

"I swear, if you don't think trying to rape her is enough—"

"I mean it, Nnoitora!" Everyone was shocked. He had 1) raised his voice on Nnoitora, his master and god, and 2) said Nnoitora without saying 'Sir' or 'Master', or even '–sama' for that matter. "I feel like I'm being killed because you're doing those things right in front of my eyes! I can't stand it anymore! Please, Nnoitora, give me an actual answer!"

"…"

"Master Nnoi—"

"Shut up, Tesla," Nnoitora hissed. Whatever happened after that was definitely enough to shut him up. I had a few ideas of my own, but…

"M-master Nnoitora…"

"Let's get the hell out of this place, I'm not about to do this where someone could see us."

Maybe…

"M-master—"

"Just Nnoitora, you dummy. Come on."

Shit, was he really…but then, what were his motives for lusting after me? Was he trying to convince himself of his sexuality? Hell, did arrancars even have a sexuality preference?

"That…was unexpected," Grimmjow finally spoke when the footsteps ceased to be heard and we emerged from the clothes.

"Talk about confusing," I offered my opinion. Me wearing a kimono and hiding within crumpled articles of clothes wasn't exactly 'fit for the occasion.' Grimmjow seemed to be thinking the same thing I was. "You think that Nnoitora might be—"

"Yeah."

_Wow, no doubt._

"So, why did he try to—"

"So he could try to convince himself that he wasn't."

"…It does sort of piece together now," I commented. "That day we saw him and Tesla, they looked pretty…ruffled up."

"Wonder what Tesla's been feeling about all this," Grimmjow wondered, unjamming the cart and starting off again.

We talked a bit more about our recent discoveries, followed by an awkward silence and then him trying to make advances on me. If he was human I probably could've bruised him, at least. Nooooooo, the hierro is always there to help him like the closeness of peanut butter and jelly.

We spent some time together in my room doing absolutely nothing; both of us laid down on the bed and…well, you could say 'embraced' but it seemed more like 'held' (Same damn thing, though). Reveling in each other's warmth, I slowly started to fall asleep, not bothering to change clothes. But I stopped myself from completely slumbering by remembering a certain thought that had been plaguing me.

"Hey…," I stopped for a second to yawn, "Grimmjow. How did you get your rank?"

Everything was silent and for a moment I wondered if he'd fallen asleep. Then I saw his expression, full of sorrow and resentment. It made me gulp and wonder if this was the right time to ask these sort of questions. "Sorry, if you don't feel like answering then you don't have to."

"It's a long story that you don't want to hear."

"I do," I assured him. "But if you really don't—"

"…Nah, I'm okay with it. I just don't like any of my life," he clarified.

Well, this was definitely going to be interesting.

"I'm apologizing in advance," he warned. "If I start rampaging or something, let me know."

"Grimm, is the situation really that deli—"

"Yes."

"_Nya_?" a ball of black materialized between Grimmjow and I, making us both jump away. After thinking about it, I realized it was the snat. It looked over at me, as if saying 'How could you forget about me?'

I _was_ a bit ashamed of myself.

"How…," Grimmjow and I both said at the same time. The snat yawned, hissed at Grimmjow, its rattlesnake tail quivering, and curled up beside me before we could do anything about it. Laughing nervously, I motioned for him to continue with a nod of my head. He took a deep breath before starting.

"Well…our ranks are sort of hard to switch around. When I first became an arrancar, they made me one of the lower-leveled ones, even though my spiritual pressure was pretty much overflowing. For us—the lowers, Aizen thought that it would be a good idea to put us to a test." He paused for a second and scoffed. "You know how he 'tested' us? He created an arena, put two arrancar in them and made them fight to the death. It didn't matter who it was, their age, sex, or skills; if you were strong, you survived. There used to be around a thousand of us. But that bastard came along and…" I laid my hand in his and squeezed it reassuringly, making him sigh in remembrance of his temper. "In the end, only about a hundred of us survived. Some of us died afterwards, just because we couldn't stand this place. That left about three quarters of us. I was the twelfth. After that, we've had a sense of hostility towards him, but we can't show it to him. Most of us know that our asses would be kicked if we tried to kill him, anyways.

"After some time, I finally got my rank. I was known as the fifth then."

"…The fifth!? You mean that Nnoitora was the sixth!?" I exclaimed, shooting up from the bed in surprise.

His smile held warmth, but most of it was bitter. "Yeah. But I was always going against Aizen's orders, so when it got to the point where they couldn't bear it, they switched my rank and Nnoitora's. Ya know, it's not that hard to change a tattoo when it's going from a five to a six." He turned around so I could see his rank; the more I looked at it, the more I realized that it could pass off as a five if one section wasn't there. "I thought that it was no big deal…but that number changes a shitload of things. For one, a huge portion of my spiritual power was taken away. My speed decreased, my defense, accuracy, everything went down. Now that I think about it, though, I think the number six suits me better, don't you?" He returned to his normal position and ruffled my hair, pulling me close again.

"Well, the more I think about it…it is fitting for you. And this happened—?"

"A few years after I became an arrancar," he interrupted, as if expecting the question from a mile away. He yawned and made a grab for the snat; it jumped out of reach before he could do that and went to my couch. Now that it was gone I could cuddle up next to Grimmjow comfortably.

"I knew that Aizen was a bastard, but to go that far…," I started. He shook his head and planted a tender kiss on my lips. Sooner or later, though, he was losing himself. My cue to tell him to stop.

I didn't.

No, we didn't go…all the way…but I never had the liberty of having Grimmjow completely shirtless. He didn't have the chance to appreciate all the skin on my shoulders. After a while we snapped out of it.

But there was something off about him. He might've been kissing me, yet it felt like a machine was kissing me instead. A feeling of dread washed over me when I fell into deep slumber.

Alexia: O/./O

Me: Oh my god, it wasn't that bad!

Grimmjow: (Snickers) That was awesome…

Alexia: No, it wasn't! Why couldn't it be Ulqui-cielago!?

Ulquiorra: I am still bedridden, but if this is what happens when I am not present—

Me: Don't worry, tomorrow's the last day ^_^…ok guys, seriously?

All: ?

Gin: Ya hafta help 'er out!

Me: Only one person voted on the poll last week T_T*...

Alexia: (Rolls eyes) Calm yer tits, girl.

Me: WHAT!? You did not just say that!

Alexia: But you guys can review, cause she has a question for you guys.

Me: …(Calms down) Well, she is right about the latter…my was just wondering if you guys preferred the genre of this story as romance/humor or more like romance/drama? I mean, there are the laughable parts of the story—

Alexia: It was not funny to throw me into a hot spring fully clothed T_T

Me: Buuuuut (Ignores), I'm starting to think that there is more dramatic elements in here than the humorous parts, so if you guys have an opinion on it let me know? Please?

Alexia: You didn't say please when you complained about the poll.

Me: Shut it.

Gin: See y'all later!

(In the background…)

Ulquiorra: Finally, one more day…

Grimmjow: Finally, you can take care of her again x.x she's such a slave-driver...


	13. Somebody I Thought I Knew

Alexia: Ah, the thirteenth chapter!

Me: •-•?

KillingDesire: Seriously?

Me: Oh, I get it now! ^_^ I see what you did there.

Alexia and Desire: T_T'

Me: You know, it's the number thirteen, which means that bad things are supposed to happen in this chapter!

KillingDesire: T_T' You don't have to explain, you know. We all knew what it meant. You were just slow.

Me: ;-; Thanks a lot.

Alexia: You're welcome ^_^

Me: Oh, I recommend you listen to this song while reading this first part of the chapter:

/watch?v=KBxFeb5sCOM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

It's pretty fitting for the mood…and you'll have to figure out why by reading it yourself! My only hint is that Ulquiorra's in it ^\.\^

KillingDesire: You really need to limit your obsession with Ulquiorra.

Alexia and I: *-* Ulquiorra?

Alexia: ^_^ What about him?

Me: Woah, you have Grimmjow! Stay away from my Ulqui-cielago!

Alexia: Ò.Ó That's only because you wrote about it! I have my rights!

Me: (Smirks) You? Rights? That's a really good joke, you know ^_^

Alexia: You bitch!

(Alexia and I continue to bicker for the next four hours)

KillingDesire: Just…forget I said anything T_T'''

**DAY SEVEN, PART ONE**

The pressure in the air was heavy; I felt like I was being crushed. I squinted my eyes and put my hands over my ears, rubbing my temples and trying to draw the ringing noise in my head away. Suddenly, everything faded and my efforts to breathe lessened. The smell of smoke was faintly detectable when I inhaled deeply.

"…saki-kun!" The high-pitched voice instantly filled my every thought with anger. "Kurosaki-kun!"

Gulping, I slowly turned my head and surveyed the scene before me. Rubble was everywhere. Hueco Mundo's reversed crescent moon shone brightly above me, illuminating the destruction.

"Damn…" A deep, hushed voice behind me whispered. I snapped my head around, recognizing the voice. The sight that greeted me made me recoil in shock.

Ulquiorra was leaning against a rock, panting heavily. His eyes were narrowed; he didn't seem to notice me. His yellow irises were glancing at the scene in front of him. None of that stood out as much as his body. His right leg was intact, but his left looked as fragile as a twig. It was slowly regenerating, as was his arm, but the pace was slow. He only had his left wing, the right one being cut off by Ichigo. His long tail apparently wasn't there anymore, either. I was confused as to why they still hadn't started to heal yet.

"Ul…quiorra…?" My eyes immediately watered at his condition, a hand covering my mouth. I started to walk over to him but he stepped away. I felt a pang of hurt.

"Stay away," he instructed coldly, not even looking in my direction.

I regained my senses and hardened up my resolve. "You have to stop this!" I exclaimed. Knowing what would happen if the next events went as planned didn't help my shaking voice. "If you keep on using your strength continuously like this, you're going to die! Don't push your limits!"

"If I have to sacrifice my life to protect Las Noches and, therefore, Aizen's orders, I will gladly do so."

"Don't you understand!?" I yelled as he focused his eyes on Ichigo and got in a stance. "Aizen is just using you all!"

Ulquiorra suddenly turned and looked me straight in the eyes. He seemed to be inspecting my every move, the blink of my eyes, the rise and fall of my chest as I drew panicked breaths, the twitch of my fingers. Blinking once, he stepped away from me, losing all interest in what I'd said.

"Don't do this…," I whispered. "It's not worth it…"

"If I do not protect Las Noches, then who will?" The statement left me shocked. He was right, in a sense. No one thought of what would become of Hueco Mundo if the Soul Reapers defeated all the espada. It would be left alone.

That didn't mean his life was worth that little.

But no matter what I told him, he quickly put his strength into sonidoing into the air next to the fully hollowfied Ichigo. With a snap of his wrist, he brought his glowing lance down on Ichigo's mask, cutting off a horn that was the cause of Ichigo being able to fire ceros. The cero exploded on impact; the mask cracked and split into pieces, sending Ichigo to the ground.

I watched in shock as Orihime ran over to the unconscious Ichigo, a new river of tears in her eyes. For some unfathomable reason, I felt empathetic of her. Why would I care for her? _This's all her fault_. At least, that's what I've thought this whole time…if she hadn't existed, she wouldn't have gotten captured. If she hadn't gotten captured, then Ulquiorra wouldn't have to go through this. It wasn't fair.

Ulquiorra stood, not doing anything besides staring. I knew his thoughts. So what if I was such a freak as to remember exactly what he'd thought? Not only was it my memory, the photographic memory kicked in as well.

'If I didn't finish him off with that blow, I'd be the one lying there dead.'

_Well_, I thought bitterly, _you end up dead anyway. That's what you get for pushing yourself for the sake of that bastard, the one who was supposed to be your 'Lord.'_

A suctioning sound suddenly resonated from Ichigo's direction. A triangular chasm of light shot up and swirled around the air above him, then concentrated on the gigantic hole Ulquiorra had made with his cero oscuras. In mere seconds, the hole was gone, leaving no trace of its existence behind.

"Kuro…saki…?" Orihime said, eyes wide in surprise. Ichigo shot up in the blink of an eye, startling her.

"I—! Wasn't there…a hole in my chest!?" He exclaimed, his hand going to the spot where the hole was. He turned to Orihime with a worried look in his eyes. "Are you alright, Inoue?" She nodded her head meekly and gave a weak smile.

Standing up, Ichigo noticed Ishida out of the corner of his eye and snapped his head around. Besides the fact that Ishida currently had a sword piercing through his gut, he seemed fine. It was probably the anesthetics that he'd taken, which was also the reason his left arm was just fine as well.

"Ishida…!" Ichigo was on an overload of surprise. I couldn't blame him.

"Finally…you're back…," Ishida barely managed to huff out.

"That wound…did I do that?"

"You sure are a stubborn one," Ulquiorra voiced. It was then that Ichigo noticed that Ulquiorra was still there.

"Ulquiorra…!"

In a flash, Ulquiorra sonidoed from where he was to Ishida, then yanked out Ichigo's zanpakuto, Zangetsu, from Ishida's innards. He threw it to the ground in front of Ichigo. "Take it. Let's finish this," he instructed. Ichigo, however, didn't heed him.

"Am I the one who attacked Ishida?" he asked.

"Don't ask me."

"Am I the one who cut off your arm and leg?" His tone of voice held urgency. It didn't faze Ulquiorra, who stayed silent in response to Ichigo's question. Ichigo narrowed his eyes. "Then cut off my arm and leg, too!"

"Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime exclaimed. Even Ulquiorra looked a bit surprised, his eyes slightly wider. That moment didn't last too long.

"That wasn't me fighting you," Ichigo continued. "That was my hollow form. I had no control over it. If you want to settle this, it won't be fair unless we're in the same condition!"

I felt like an outsider. Everyone ignored me, who was silently watching the scene in horror. It was too late—I couldn't do anything to save him anymore. Even though I knew that, I ran over to him. My legs felt like they were jello; my movements were slowed down no matter how hard I tried to reach him.

"Kurosaki…! Do you realize what you're saying!?" Ishida tried to convince Ichigo not to suggest what he had already suggested. Ichigo ignored him. "Kurosaki!"

Ulquiorra didn't waste a moment in giving his reply. "Alright. If that's what you wish." He went into a stance, preparing to lunge. I didn't pay attention to the stream of tears going down my face. _No…_I didn't want to see the dust that Ulquiorra would soon turn into. _I don't want to see the—_

Ashes. They came from Ulquiorra's wing at first, giving the impression he was dissolving. _Impression?_ I scoffed. _He_ is_ dissolving._ Soon enough, his whole body was disintegrating.

"…I guess this is it for me," Ulquiorra said, not a drop of regret in his voice. It made me so mad to hear him talk like that. "Kill me." Ichigo stared in shock. "Hurry up; I don't even have the strength left to walk. If you don't kill me now, it will never be over."

"…I won't do it," Ichigo hissed, his voice cracking.

"What?"

"I said I won't…" Ulquiorra continued to stare. "This…this isn't the way I wanted to win!"

Ulquiorra's eyes were wide in surprise. Then they returned to normal as fast as they had widened. "Even in the end, you never listen to what I say…"

At this point, I was a few feet away from him. If the others were concerned about a girl interfering in the middle of a baffle, they sure didn't show it.

"Just when I was starting to find you people a bit interesting," Ulquiorra continued.

"Ulquiorra!" All at once, my legs could move normally. Orihime was in my way, though. I grabbed her and turned her, making her face me. Her face had fear written all over them, yet they also held resolve and sympathy. This is why I fucking hated her. It was like her emotions were all mashed up, and you didn't know how to take them. Not that I cared.

"Y-you…," she murmured.

"Heal him!" I shouted, shoving her towards him. "Hurry up and heal him!"

"But—"

"_HEAL_ HIM ALREADY!" I cried, my voice cracking as my emotions took over. "Why…why can't you heal him?" She didn't answer. I covered my face in my hands, letting out loud sobs, falling to my knees. "Ulquiorra…"

I looked up at him. He wasn't doing anything; then he outstretched his hand, but not towards Orihime. Towards me. My eyes widened. In a haste, I got to my feet.

_At least once, let me feel you before you're gone. Please. Let me take in your scent, cherish a few more moments with you before you can never come back. Give me a chance._

I didn't get that chance. As he dissolved, I ran towards him. There was only a sliver of his face left. I thought I could make it.

But I didn't. When I finally reached him, he was gone. I feel into a chasm of darkness.

I shot up, barely containing the scream trying to rip through. My whole body was shaking uncontrollably. Wrapping my arms around myself, I couldn't stop the tears from flowing. This feeling…it was like I was being ripped in half. That dream had felt so real. I couldn't convince myself that that had been my imagination. The more I thought about it, the more I fell into deeper grief. It seemed like someone was mocking me. 'You really think you can forget about all this?' they taunted. 'Think again, fool!'

"Why…," I said. "Why did I…have to dream…about this!?" My voice grew louder. "Why!?"

Not like anyone would hear me.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop my sobs, the shaking of my body, or that feeling. Of all the dreams I'd had (in my life), none of them were as horrible as this one.

Soon, it wouldn't be a dream anymore.

I stilled at the thought. He was going to die…there wasn't anything I could do about it.

Was there?

After all, what could I do? Mess things up even more? It wasn't like I had any special powers. I wasn't planning on becoming an arrancar, but if becoming one would hinder people's deaths…_two_ people's deaths, to be exact…I knew the storyline. If I told the espada about what was really going to happen to them, I wasn't sure they'd believe me. There was also the chance that Aizen would overhear the whole thing. A damn good chance. Then there were the espadas who wouldn't side with me no matter what. I was sure Nnoitora, Aaroniero and Barragan wouldn't. Concerning Ulquiorra…I was scared to think of his reaction, mostly because I didn't know what it would be.

Actually thinking about the situation helped me calm myself, but it was just a front. A few tears were still falling, and my hands were shaking. The I'm-being-ripped-in-half feeling wasn't that bad anymore; it was more like a this-pain-in-my-heart-feels-like-a-pain-in-the-ass. Just…not so much irritating as it was sorrowful. As much as I would have loved to say 'It's just a dream', that wasn't the case anymore.

I realized that Grimmjow wasn't here anymore. He'd stayed yesterday, I saw him fall asleep. He was really cute when he slept. You guessed it: like a cat. Although, he could never compare to the snat. I ought to give it a name; it was tiresome to call it 'she', 'her', 'it', or just 'the snat'.

Speak of the devil…

"How the hell did you end up on top of my head?" I asked incredulously. Being careful not to tilt my head back, I brought my arms up and lifted the snat up and off of my head. It let out a mewl of discomfort—apparently my head was a good place to rest—but settled down in my lap almost immediately.

In my opinion, names were something extremely important. I had my own reasons for it—reasons I wasn't going to tell, less likely write them. Sorry, Szayel. Anyways, I thought that the snat had to have a name that suited it perfectly, for now and in the future. If there was a future for it and I.

"Your eyes remind me of a kaleidoscope…," my knowledge kicked in. In kaleidoscope, kalos meant 'beautiful', from ancient Greek; I was surprised to actually remember this from my literature class. What was 'eidos'? Scope was a no-brainer, from Latin. So, for now I could keep kalos in her name. She _was_ beautiful.

I felt like there should've been something added to it, though.

** 'What about 'felinus'?'**

_Why felinus?_

**'It's the Latin form of feline.'**

Apparently we were all two thousand years old now. _Felinus sounds too long, how am I supposed to combine that with 'kalos'?_

She gave an impatient huff. **'Just use the first syllable of 'felinus' and stick 'kalos' onto the end.'**

_That easily?_

** 'Well, you just said so yourself not to make it complicated…'**

_Names are a big deal, though. _My patience was wearing thin. _Your name decides a lot of things about you._

**'No, it doesn't.'**

_It does, what if I didn't have a name?_

**'You don't know ****_my_**** name.'**

_So what?_

**'Well, I'm just saying that—'**

_ I know, I know!_

**'…Don't let that dream get to your head too much.' **My heart ceased to beat.

_H-how did you know about that?_

**'I'm in your mind, do you think I wouldn't see what you could? That isn't going to happen for a while, don't worry about it right now.'**

"…It's just that…," I said aloud, although at the time I didn't know I was doing it. "Ulquiorra…he didn't deserve that. I mean, come on, he found out what a heart was and then just died?! Kubo was seriously high on some messed up shit when he drew that part of the manga…" I didn't notice my hands were clutching the bed sheets to the point of them almost ripping until I looked down. Small dots of moisture were on my hands, which I realized were my tears. "Sorry, I'm turning into a sobbing mess for something so…"

**'S'alright, I guess.' **Her voice sounded pretty sad, too. **'We'll figure something out, though, right?'**

…

**'Hey, answer me!'**

_…Yeah._ I forced myself out of my depressing thoughts. _So, you're saying I should name her 'Fekalos.'_

**'Mhmm. Sounds pretty.'**

_Sounds like 'Figaro'._

** '…Forget it, we're screwed if we use a name it that.'**

I let out a nervous laugh. _I don't see what's so bad about that name, but it definitely isn't that fitting for a cat. _In a few seconds, a new name came up._ 'Feka'?_

** '?…That actually sounds pretty nice.'**

"Hey, do you like the name 'Feka'?" I asked the snat, scratching its ears. It turned over, paws up, and gave a happy meow. "Wait, I've got an idea." Forcing myself out of bed with a grunt, I went to the corner of the room, as far away from 'Feka' as possible.

**'You're planning on calling her to you? That's impossible, she's never heard that name used for her before.'**

"If she likes it, she'll respond by getting off of the bed and coming over to me," I explained.

**'As I said, that's impossi—'**

She shut up when I called out 'Feka.' As if the snat knew what we were planning, she looked over at me curiously before jumping off the bed and padding towards me, curling up at my feet.

**'Either you framed this, or—'**

"That's her name," I decided with a smile. That was when Feka jumped onto the chair next to me, then leaped again. She nearly jumped on me again, but her aim was directed at my dresser. I scrambled to grab her before she made a mess.

Which was exactly what she did.

"Hey, Feka! Get down from there before you…knock something down…," I sighed. My sketchbook was on the floor, along with the journal. "Don't—don't even think about—!" She jumped off, knocking one more thing onto the floor. Another sigh escaped me. I crouched down to inspect what she'd dropped this time.

_A compass?_

Then realization hit me. Grimmjow must've forgotten to take it with him when he left. Speaking of which, he was going to have to explain why he hadn't said bye beforehand.

**'You sound too attached to him.'** Scratching the back of my head, I agreed shyly. **'So, what's the deal with you two?'**

_What do you mean?_ I asked.

**'You don't really like him, do you?'**

_ I…well…_

**'You're going to hurt him when you tell him that you're breaking up.'**

_N-no one ever said—_

**'Face it, you only decided to date him out of pity, right? Besides…I just have a bad feeling about all this.'**

_If you can even call it that_, I admitted to her question hesitantly, grabbing the compass. _What did it do_…I remembered Grimmjow's exact words. 'You just think of where you wanna go. Having a visual is better, but you don't have to. The compass reads your thoughts and directs you to where you want, no exceptions.'

I had asked him if it would take you to hell if you wanted. He'd looked at my like I'd sprouted another head.

The mirror on my dresser reminded me of the fact that I still had my kimono on. I decided to keep it on, smoothing out any wrinkles and adjusting the obi, since Grimmjow had shifted it off of my shoulders yesterday when we were…um. Yeah. Heading to the bathroom, I brushed out my hair and then took a strand from the inner bottom, braiding it and then bringing it out in front. I washed my face to further wake myself and brushed my teeth.

My heart beat a bit faster as I went outside, Feka at my heels. _I want to go…_, I thought, closing my eyes and concentrating. _Well…take me to Ulquiorra._

As soon as I opened my eyes again, the small knob of the compass started spinning. It slowed to a stop a few seconds later. According to it, I had to go in the opposite direction of where Grimmjow and I walked when going to see Ulquiorra and, in general, the espada's rooms. Shrugging as if this was something I did everyday, I walked in that direction. _It's ok. Nnoitora isn't going to appear every time you leave your room, Alexia._

At that moment I expected Nnoitora to magically appear, as if he'd read my thoughts. Surprisingly enough, he didn't. Guess the odds were in my favor today. Unless he was following me, lurking in the shadows and waiting for the perfect opportunity.

_Well, that's just the highlight of my day._

I looked over my shoulder, getting a chill up my spine. _Stupid imagination_. Shaking it off, I kept walking silently, Feka on my right. At least if I had her around she'd try to claw Nnoitora's other eye out if he touched me.

I was pretty sure a few minutes had passed on my way there. To pass the time, I'd hummed the melody to 'Somebody I Used to Know' by Gotye. At last (it felt like an eternity), we reached our destination. The compass even flashed a few times and said, _'DESTINATION REACHED!_' A little too optimistic. I found myself at Szayel's lab. For a second I wondered why Ulquiorra would be here.

First reaction: _I swear, if anything else happened to him I will personally kill him myself_. Reaction two: _okay, I take that back (definitely wasn't a good thought with the dream I'd had). It's not like I could anyways_. Reaction three: _then why _is_ he here? It's only the seventh day, sooo…_

Reaction four: _HOLY SHIT, IT'S THE SEVENTH DAY!_

I facepalmed. _How could I forget?_ Hastily, I knocked on the door before I remembered that it wouldn't do anything. I looked down and smiled at the sight of Feka scratching at the door. She must've felt somewhat attracted to this place.

All at once, a panel slid out next to the door, revealing a screen with Szayel on it. He looked more content than usual. Static was heard before his voice broke through. "It's a bit too early to be awake at this time, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?" I asked. It was surprising how I hadn't realized that I had kept the watch on when I went to sleep. As I moved its place on my arm, the place where it was was marked with its imprint. My eyes widened. 5:23 a.m.

_Damn that dream._

"Sorry, Szayel; I didn't realize it was so early," I apologized. He shook his head, forgiving me.

"There's nothing to apologize for. Come inside, I'll get something in here so you can rest."

The door slid open and I walked inside, making sure Feka was following. In fact, she was pretty much leading the way. This time, when I went into the display room, it was more illuminated than usual, although it was still more dim than bright.

"How do you feel?" Szayel's voice resonated from my right. In the moment that I turned in that direction, he emerged from the shadows of the back of the room. His face was somewhat cheerful; somewhat because it also held what seemed like condescendence, like he knew something I didn't. Or maybe it was confidence. Whatever it was, it unsettled me. "Take a seat."

"…Okay," I answered with some hesitation. He pointed to the wall opposite of him. There was a black leather couch practically commanding me to lay down on it. Something about it reminded me of Egyptian furniture. A-lot-more-comfortable Egyptian furniture. It was pretty posh, too—

I did not actually write that…'posh'? Really? And I thought my Britannic speech would cease since I lived in America for five years.

Anyways…I tried not to jump onto the couch (as the voice was urging me to) and resorted to calmly walking over and quietly, not-hurriedly laying down, resting my head on an arm of the couch.

The last thing I remembered was someone draping a blanket over me. Some time later, I cracked my eyes open to find myself next to Szayel, who was scribbling down notes in a notebook that was held by a clip board; at least, that's what it looked like. As I pushed myself up to get a better look, I discovered he wasn't using a notebook at all. On the clipboard, a hologram of Ulquiorra was being displayed. There were several green check marks on certain parts of Ulquiorra's body, such as his hands, feet, elbows, knees and neck. Red X's took up most of the spots, though. Worry wiggled its way up my throat.

"Glad to see you're awake," commented Szayel, pointing to the medical table set up in front of us. "Ulquiorra's here, we're about to start testing him to see his current condition." Relief washed away my worries like a giant tidal wave.

About twenty feet away, a female arrancar came into the room, pushing along Ulquiorra on a cot. The sight reminded me of the people sent to an ER room or ICU for critical injuries. _Well, isn't that a happy thought. _I hoped this wasn't the case. If it was…_no, I need to stop being a pessimist_. I'd had enough of that already.

Ulquiorra seemed to be barely awake, eyes only opened a fraction of an inch. "…It is today," he murmured, the normal bored tone in his voice.

"That's right," Szayel agreed, getting up and walking over to Ulquiorra, hovering over him. In the blink of an eye, he had a small flashlight in his hands. Turning it on, he shone the bright light in Ulquiorra's eyes, earning an annoyed grunt from Ulquiorra.

The female arrancar hesitantly came over to me and sat down where Szayel once was. It was then that I recognized her; she was the same arrancar that had given Grimmjow and I the tequila bottle. She knew it, too. A small smile adorned her face, probably remembering how everything went that day. Her voice still bugged me a bit, though, as she murmured a hello. I felt that I should know her, but that was impossible. Every time I thought about my past and how she could be involved in it, I got a burning sensation in my eyes.

I made small talk with her, mostly constructed of me asking her questions. Her name was Auria, she was roughly 50 years old (hollow years; I'm not sure if there's a human to hollow year conversion formula), her favorite color was sky blue and she was a thinker. The latter I could've deducted myself. I almost felt sorry for her when she took longer than normal to tell me her name, but felt like slapping myself when she'd said that she wasn't sure if she could trust me. The whole time, I was staring straight at her lime green eyes. If we turned off the lights I was convinced that they'd glow in the dark, that was pretty much how fluorescent they looked.

"Now, in order to hear your lungs I'm going to need you to—"

"I know," Ulquiorra interrupted Szayel. He unzipped his jacket and took it off, exposing all of his chest. I couldn't tear my eyes away from his muscular chest, hollow hole and the gothic four to the left of the hole. He didn't seem as muscular as Grimmjow, but he obviously was a lot more powerful despite that lack. He caught me staring and stared back, making me blush in embarrassment.

"M-morning, Ulquiorra…," I mumbled, breaking off our eye contact.

"Woman," he murmured boredly. The tone of his voice worried me. It didn't sound the same as how it had changed in the past week; it reminded me more of how cold he was before that (how cold he had seemed at the time). Then again, he was healed now, so his personality was bound to go back to normal as well.

I was a _bit_ disappointed.

"Alexia?" Szayel asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Uh, yeah? What is it?" I asked.

"You blacked out for a second, there. I was asking if you could help me out with this," Szayel informed, standing next to Ulquiorra. A blood glucose monitor was there, with a tube connecting from Ulquiorra's index finger to the machine's measurer.

Ulquiorra stared at the glucose monitor as the smallish part attached to his finger pricked his skin, a single crimson drop appearing at the surface. If Ulquiorra doesn't have a heart, then how does blood circulate through his body? It seemed that Auria was also curious about it, too, since her eyebrows were furrowed in confusion as she watched with me.

"What exactly did you want me to help you with?" I asked. Szayel beckoned me over and took both of my hands, leading them to Ulquiorra's shoulders.

"What are you planning, Szayelapporo Granz?" Ulquiorra inquired, watching me intently. I averted my gaze from his and felt a blush creep up my face.

"Alright, I'm going to slowly push you to the edge of the bed. You'll have to pull yourself up and support yourself on Alexia, and try to walk as well," Szayel explained from where he was now currently standing, behind Ulquiorra.

I started to say,"Are you sure it's okay for him to—"

"I am 98.6279% sure," Szayel both interrupted (which partially annoyed me) and assured me (which ended up giving me comfort). "And yes, I'm 1.3721% unsure, but how did things work out last time I told you something like this?" Without waiting for an answer, he gave Ulquiorra a small push.

The push was unexpected, causing Ulquiorra to instinctively put his arms out and hold onto my sides. My common sense on the brink of despair, I barely managed to not let go of his shoulders.

I definitely didn't want to give Ulquiorra an injury when he was nearly completely healthy again.

"You two seem to be getting quite comfortable," Szayel cunningly remarked. Another blush erupted from me, whereas Ulquiorra continued to stare at me intently. "Ulquiorra, if you could stop making her flustered and nervous, and start walking?" he suggested. I opened my mouth to speak but Ulquiorra beat me to it.

"That is what I am trying to do in the first place," Ulquiorra answered. His tone of voice was rather cold. The worn-out gears in my brain started to turn. _Wrath? But he doesn't seem that…wrathful._

Ulquiorra took a cautious step forward, wobbling a bit before putting his foot down and stabilizing himself. While he did that, I stepped away to give him space. It went like that for a few minutes, until he could almost walk by himself. With a start, I laughed when I realized that it looked like we were dancing.

"What do you find amusing about this?" Ulquiorra asked, taking another step towards me—too close. He nearly bumped our whole bodies against each other but managed to keep an incredibly small space between us.

"…It's nothing, really," I mumbled, looking down to hide my blush. If anything else made me blush I was sure the top of my head would blow off and blood would come gushing out like I was a volcano or something…sorry, my imagination took over for a second, there.

** '1-2-3, 1-2-3—'**

_For the last time, we're not waltzing!_

**'Sure you aren't.'**

_…Remember what you told me about tuning you out?_

**'Hey, wai—'**

_Much better._

Inwardly sighing, I grew uncomfortable as Ulquiorra stepped ever-so-closer to me, to the point where we were making more and more physical contact with every step. "Do you have something to hide?" he urged, his face mere inches from mine. My eyed widened, quickly putting some space between us and clearing my throat.

"I just think we're a little too close," I admitted as politely as possible. Diverting my attention, I saw Auria and Szayel conversing. Auria sneaked small glances in my direction, as did Szayel. A feeling of unease settled in my stomach.

"Do you think I am doing this on purpose?" he asked. I shook my head hastily.

"No, of course not. Just that, by now, you should be fine to walk on your own…"

"I will try to walk without your assistance; if I fall this will all be your fault," he reminded me, his grip on my hips lessening. I wasn't sure if I felt relieved that he wasn't touching me anymore or disappointed and yearning for him to put his hands back on th—

_Woah. Not this again._

"Uh, I don't get something," I changed the subject. Hope I actually sounded interested in my own thoughts. Partially, I was. "Szayel checked your glucose levels, right?" He nodded, his eyes showing impatience. "Well, I know that you don't have a physical heart, and humans need a heart to pump blood through their body. So, how can you bleed if—"

"An arrancar has a completely different anatomy than a human does," Ulquiorra interrupted, saying the word 'human' like it was some sort of illness. Raising an eyebrow at him, I looked him over, then tilted my head as if to say 'Oh, that's completely obvious.'

"Well, simply by looking it doesn't look like there's much difference."

"I was talking about inner organs," he elaborated in an annoyed tone. I laughed it off and he glared at me, making me stop.

"Sorry, it's just that you're awfully serious today," I commented. "You don't have to be stuck in your room anymore, you should be more…uh…"

"I am not going to change my attitude only because of—" Whatever Ulquiorra wanted to say was interrupted by me, completely stepping away from him, more than a foot away. His eyes widened and he immediately struggled to stay up.

"Walk," I said. He looked at me with a look that said, 'How dare you?' It was too late to turn back, though. "Go, I know you're fine now."

Seconds went by with no movement. Apparently Szayel and Auria had seen what I'd done and were now watching; Auria was obviously surprised, while Szayel watched with an amused smirk. I'd have to talk with him, find out why he was so happy.

Giving a small sigh that only I could hear, Ulquiorra took a few steps forward. I smiled warmly and shrugged, motioning for him to keep going. After a few minutes, he was walking just fine, even using sonido and scaring me. Although he didn't show any signs of enjoyment, I knew he felt like he was complete again.

"Ah, here is your jacket, Ulquiorra-sama," Auria ran over and handed it to him, which he took without a response. I took the opportunity to head over to Szayel. He seemed to know I was going to ask him something.

"Szayel…," I realized I didn't even know how I was going to ask him what was on my mind. _Nice going, Alexia._ "Uh…You've been acting really happy lately. I mean, not like, super happy, but—point is, you're in a good mood. Um, any idea what that's about?"

**'God, that's horrible.'**

_…It's the best I could do_, I whined.

"Well, besides the fact that Ulquiorra healed because of the medications I gave him, I've discovered a few things that are quite interesting," he hinted, clearly trying to get me hooked. It was working.

If he was doing this to purposely lead me somewhere, I didn't know if I wanted to go there or not. But I didn't see another option yet. "What exactly did you find out?" I questioned.

"…Well, to put it in a general way, Grimmjow has a few things to tell you."

"What things?" I asked again, getting annoyed of his guessing game. "Or can only he tell me?"

"Correct," he replied right away.

Well, there wasn't a point in trying to get the answer out of him if I knew there wasn't a way to get it out in the first place. "Hey, about Ulquiorra…"

"Ulquiorra?" Szayel raised an eyebrow at my question. "What about him?"

"His blood," I clarified. "How can it flow? In the human body, the heart pumps blood throughout all parts of the body, but Ulquiorra doesn't really have a heart, yet he can still bleed. How is that even possible?"

"Well, just take a look at this," Szayel pulled out his clipboard and conveyed the hologram of Ulquiorra again, zooming in on Ulquiorra's chest. With some quick swipes, all of Ulquiorra's organs were exposed, along with the veins. My breath caught when Szayel magnified the image even further. Artilleries were extending from his hollow hole, operating as if the heart was always there.

"How is that even—"

"Possible? That's what I've been trying to figure out," Szayel admitted. "He's an incredibly strange case. Ever since he became one of the espada sixty years ago, I've been doing countless amounts of research on his anatomy, with no results."

"So, Ulquiorra became an espada sixty years ago," I was suddenly interested in Ulquiorra's past.

"Yes, why do you say so?" Szayel inquired, me shrugging casually in response.

If he had information on all the espadas' anatomy, then he should know how Grimmjow's digestive system works, right? "So, what about Grimm—"

On cue, Grimmjow burst in. Quickly scoping out the room, he practically stomped over to me. On instinct, I started to run in the opposite direction.

"Alexia!" yelled Grimmjow. His voice called the attention of Ulquiorra and Auria. Locking my eyes with Ulquiorra's, he raised his eyebrow for a split second, then reverted his expression to normal. "Why are you running away from me!?"

"Oh, I don't know," I panted, "Maybe because you're chasing after me as if you're going to kill me!?" At that point he finally realized how foolish he looked. Skidding to a stop, he laughed nervously and walked over to me instead of trying to trample me.

"It seems you're in a hurry," Szayel called out. Grimmjow glared at him. It was strange how he didn't trip while doing that. I was pulled into a bear hug and nearly suffocated; I would've if he hadn't gotten the message when I pounded on his chest.

"Nice to see you, too," he remarked with that smirk of his. Then, in a more hushed tone, he said, "Good to see that Schiffer's up and running, otherwise I'd have to pound some sense into him for taking our quality time for nothing." For some reason, he broke off our eye contact and cleared his throat, walking away from me to have a word or two with Szayel. Since when was he an acquaintance of Grimmjow's?

All of a sudden, the scene before me was a moving picture for me to analyze. Auria was trying to start up a conversation while still glancing over at me, and Ulquiorra paid no attention to her whatsoever. He was also looking over at me every few seconds. Szayel was in his merry mood talking with Grimmjow, who looked like he was arguing with him about something. They both sneaked a look over at me, and upon realizing that I'd seen them, quickly looked away. My throat ran dry. Something was going on, and nobody was going to tell me anytime soon, which I found infuriating.

So infuriating, in fact, that I felt like finding out for myself.

I tried to act like I didn't want to strangle Grimmjow and force the answer out of him as I walked over to him. He smiled, looked at me for a split second before breaking his gaze again and continuing his conversation with Szayel. I only heard snippets of it, even though I was nearby.

"…If you do…"

"And after that, what?"

"…solution, although it won't be easy."

"Damn right."

_Goddammit, if they don't tell me something soon…_

"So, what're you two bickering about?" I casually interrupted, nearing Grimmjow's side. He stepped away. That was a first. "Is there something wrong?"

Szayel raised his eyebrow and walked away without a word. "Hey, where are you going!?" Grimmjow demanded an answer.

"I leave it to you, Grimmjow," those words were the only hints Szayel gave me. Which only made me more confused than before. "Ah, and Alexia: please do go easy on him."

_Well, shit. _Now I was in a pile of what-the-hell-is-going-on.

"So—" Grimmjow was gone. If he'd sonidoed to get himself away from our confrontation, he was actually doing a pretty good job at it. "Damn you, Grimmjow."

"Woman," Ulquiorra's voice rang out, distracting me. Looking over at him, I saw that he was seated on the couch I'd taken a nap on; well, the only couch, really. Auria wasn't there anymore. He scooted over a bit, beckoning me over.

"So, how's it feel to be free?" I teased, nudging his shoulder as I sat down. On the inside, I was trying not to run and scuttle under the first rock I could find. But on the outside, it felt natural to converse with him like this.

_You will not become embarrassed_. _There isn't anything to be embarrassed about in the first place. You will not lose control of your feelings_. These thoughts seemed to console me a little, but it didn't have too much of an effect.

"Well, free. That is very self explanatory," he answered. I nodded in agreement. "Alexia."

"Yeah?"

"What do you plan to do now?"

"…I don't know. I should probably go and complain to Aizen about how boring this place is," I suggested. Ulquiorra glared at me. "Okay, okay, that's probably not going to accomplish anything other than me getting hurt agai—"

"He has harmed you before?" The question was unexpected.

"Huh? Well, yeah…," I murmured, avoiding his gaze. "I was being a smartass, so I guess I had it coming." He didn't answer for a few moments.

"Woman, there is something on your neck," he completely swerved off subject. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion as I lifted my head up to look at him. His hand came up and touched the spot right above my collarbone.

"W-what's there?" I asked. His own eyebrows furrowed. Then I blushed insanely when I realized that the mark Grimmjow had made there yesterday night was completely visible to anyone. No wonder; Szayel with his damn smirk, Auria only glancing, and Ulquiorra obviously bothered by it but not doing anything. I leaned away from his touch, clearing my throat. "I…uh…well, this is…"

My words went unheeded (not that I was telling him something he could understand, anyways) and he tilted my head up, examining the area where the colored spot on my neck was. I clenched my teeth. His fingers went over it, leaving a trail of fire in his path. His face neared my neck even more. There was another mark on the back of my neck which he also noticed with an even-more-evident-than-usual frown.

"Who did this?"

"…"

"Answer me, Alexia."

"…jow."

"…Grimmjow." I nodded. "Did he harm you when he did this?" Ulquiorra's hands left my neck and I cracked it. It hurt a bit from keeping it in the same position for a few minutes.

"No," I replied firmly. "It's actually…well, it's not something that someone usually gets through pain."

"Then you gained this through pleasure?" Ulquiorra sought an answer. I gulped at the bluntness of his question.

"P-pretty much."

"How?"

"…"

"If he hurt you…," Ulquiorra murmured, leaning closer to me. I shook my head, looking down. "I will have to do something about it."

"What do you mean?" I asked, mustering up my resolve and looking into his emerald eyes. His face was incredibly close to mine. "Ulquiorra?"

Suddenly, everything spun around me, and in a split second I found myself being held by Grimmjow, a few feet away from the couch.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Grimmjow shouted at Ulquiorra, who kept his blank stare.

"I was talking with Alexia," Ulquiorra admitted. Grimmjow's grip on me increased when he heard Ulquiorra say my name.

"I guess that's why you were so close to her face!"

"It was unintentional."

"Unintentional, my ass! You just need to get the fuck away from her!"

I pried myself out of Grimmjow's grip. The animalistic look was completely there. "Grimmjow, please, you're looking at this the wrong way," I tried to explain, taking a few steps backward. I bumped into Ulquiorra while doing so.

"Get away from—" started Grimmjow.

"This was an accident, Grimmjow," Ulquiorra interfered.

"Like hell it was an—"

"Grimmjow, you know I didn't do this on purpose," I pleaded.

"How can I fucking believe you when you're all close with him!?" he exclaimed. My arm was grabbed again by him, the same exact place as yesterday. "You just need to stay close to me, alright!?" He looked over to Ulquiorra. "And you, I told you to stay the hell away from her."

Enormous spiritual pressure erupted from Ulquiorra, bringing Grimmjow to his knees. Ulquiorra's glare was like a blizzard. "Why?" Ulquiorra commanded more than asked. "Give me one good reason why I should maintain my distance from her."

"…I…," Grimmjow struggled to answer; whether it was from the spiritual pressure pressing down on him or his inner conflict, I couldn't tell. I heard Ulquiorra sigh before the pressure lifted and Grimmjow was able to stand up again. "That's not for you to know, Schiffer."

Ulquiorra again raised his spiritual pressure in warning, sonidoing over to me. A hand was bestowed on my shoulder and before I knew it, I was being sonidoed away from Grimmjow. "So, why should I not do this?" he murmured. His body neared mine, dangerously close. I stood frozen in shock. His pale hand caressed my hair.

"You bastard," Grimmjow huffed out.

"I am simply setting an example."

"Fuck you! Just…stay away from—"

"You have failed to inform me why I should do so."

"Because…," Grimmjow's eyes were narrowed in conflict. "Because! I can't tell you!"

"Grimmjow," I started, trying to walk over to him; but I was stopped by Ulquiorra's arm in front of me. We exchanged a glance.

_Let us see how this plays out_, he seemed to convey in his eyes.

_Enough is enough_, I replied.

"If you cannot give me a reason, than I will simply take her with me," Ulquiorra threatened, to my surprise.

"You won't," Grimmjow denied. "You wouldn't. She's—you can't."

"She is what?" Ulquiorra urged, taking a step back, resulting in me also having to take one, too.

"Stay away from her!" repeated Grimmjow.

"Do I need to repeat myself yet again, trash? I do not feel a need to." Grimmjow's whole body was trembling with anger. Ulquiorra wrapped his arms around my torso and before I could react, he sonidoed in front of Grimmjow. I tried to pry myself out of his grasp but was only held tighter when I did.

I thought that Grimmjow was going to say something along the lines of, 'Alexia is my girlfriend, you bastard! Now get away from her before I kill you!' Time stopped when he actually spoke.

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY SISTER!"

#=#=#=#=#=#

All: …

Alexia: O.O Waitwhatthehellisgoingonandw hydidgrimmjowsayth—

Grimmjow: (Covers Alexia's mouth and drags her out of the room) Ow, don't bite my fucking hand!

Ulquiorra: T_T…I still do not understand what has just happened.

Me: I do ^_^

Gin: Woah, tha' was all sudden-like. Whatcha got under yer sleeves?

Me: I love cliffhangers ^_^+++ Review! Express your anger at my suspenseful ending!

Ulquiorra: If you must, follow and favorite.

Me: Okay, that's too much. But yes, please rant like there's no tomorrow :D See you guys next week!

(Everyone except Gin leaves)

Gin: Oi, she never answered mah question…

**P.S.: official poll results:**

**38%= Alexia, Ulquiorra and Grimmjow's POVs**

**30%= Ulquiorra and Alexia's POVs**

**15%= Alexia's POV**

**15%= Don't really care**

**0%= …Grimmjow and Alexia's POV**

**I noticed that the first two are pretty close, so it's mostly going to be Alexia and Ulquiorra's POVs, and I'll occasionally include Grimmjow once in a while. It's going to take some time to get used to the concept of not writing in my thoughts, so I might take some more time updating sometimes.**

**Grimmjow: …So, apparently no one wanted it to be just Alexia and I?**

**Alexia: Well…uh…they _did_ choose the one for all three of us ^_^' that—**

**Ulquiorra: Doesn't include you T_T**

**Grimmjow: T-T Shut it, just cause you're in the first two most popular choices…**

**Me: Okay! Let's save this for when there aren't people who are getting bored of hearing your arguments...**

**All: What did you say?**

**Me: …Nothing…**


	14. Just let it out

Me: Hey guys! Thanksgiving has passed, which pretty much filled me to the brim with food *-,* I'm still dreaming about all the food…soup, spaghetti, salad, stuffing, ham, turkey, tiramisu, cupcakes, pumpkin pie—

Alexia: Goddamnit, can you just shut it already!? (Stomach Growls) O/./O

Ulquiorra: You are still hungry, even though you ate large portions of everything…

Grimmjow: I had to get into a fight with her just so I could get that piece of cheesecake T_T' You seriously have some problems.

KillingDesire: Hey, you know I like cheesecake, why didn't you give me that last piece?

Me: If I recall, it was New York style, too…

Desire: Do you _want_ me to kill you?

Grimmjow: Uh, if you want…(holds up cheesecake for Desire to take)

Desire: O.O

Ulquiorra: I think that Grimmjow was the one who made it, as well.

Desire: Ō.Ō

Grimmjow: A-all I did was put it in the refrigerator to keep it cool -.-'

Desire: (Takes cheesecake, eyes sparkling) This's definitely a Thanksgiving to remember :D

Me: Ahem…On the other hand, Alexia and Grimmjow seem to be in a pile of shit right now, why don't we check on them?

**DAY SEVEN, PART TWO**

"What?"

"…Shit…," Grimmjow hissed. The room was at a standstill. No one moved; the atmosphere felt like a tundra, isolated and eerie. "I…I didn't mean to—"

"No, what are you talking about?" I urged. My breaths were shallow, hands trembling at my side. The fingertips of my hands were death cold. Every nerve of my body was on edge. His words seemed to bounce around in my head. '_My sister…'_

Auria walked in on us, making a small crack in the huge imaginary ice block in the room. "What's…going on?" She broke out in sweat when Grimmjow turned on her, giving her a death glare.

"What the fuck are you doing here!?" he demanded.

"I was helping S-szayel," she murmured nervously. I was glad she took a step away from him; it looked like Grimmjow was about to attack her.

"Grimmjow, don't ignore me," my voice quivered and I immediately scolded myself for it. "You're saying that I'm your…you're my…"

"It's nothing," his voice sounded equally as nervous as mine. "Don't worry about—"

"How am I supposed to not worry!" I yelled back at him. "We've been going out for a week and you decide to tell me this now!?" I barely realized that going out with someone for a week wasn't exactly a super-achievement, but it was still something.

"No, it hasn't been ever since then," he hastily disagreed. "But it started a few days ago when I started having those dreams. That's when I realized that—"

"Oh, that's even better!" I sarcastically remarked. "Why didn't you tell me four days ago when I asked you, huh? Did you think that it was something that didn't matter?" An aggravated smirk made its way onto my face.

"Listen, I was planning to tell you, but—"

"Really? When? Today, a week from now, a month, a year, when I die!? It doesn't matter anymore though, does it? Either way, I would've seen you the same way I do now: the one who said that they loved me, kissed me, touched me, and lied to me the whole damn time. You and I, all the _things_ we did—" I shuddered as the thoughts registered in my mind when I thought of that, "—while you always knew it was your sister you were doing it to."

"I was going to tell you," he pleaded.

"Why didn't you tell me when you first started having those dreams? Do you even know what I'm feeling right now!?" My voice was getting louder by the second and I was clenching and unclenching my hands to try and release some more of my blinding anger. "I guess you wouldn't give a second thought to kissing me if I was your mother, too." I gave a small, bitter laugh before I started up again. "You've been thinking that I love you, haven't you? You think that we're both just _sooo_ star-crossed. Well, guess what, Grimmjow? Do you really want to know why I decided to go out with you in the first place? Because you fucking pressured me! You couldn't take no for an answer, so you had to compress me into this minuscule being that had to obey you! I pitied your sorry ass and said, 'What is there to lose?' And now this happened. I never should've agreed. I never should've looked your way! I would've rather chosen Nnoitora over you if I'd known this would happen!"

He flinched when I said that.

"This doesn't even make sense!" I continued. "You said that you became a hollow 347 years ago! I am definitely not 347 fucking years old."

"It's just that…," he started, biting his bottom lip in frustration. "Aizen—"

"Aizen doesn't have anything to do with this," I hissed venomously at him.

"Shut up and listen to me!" Grimmjow shouted. "Okay, so I fucked up."

"You majorly fucked up."

"Did I not just tell you to shut up?"

"…"

"But I can explain everything, I swear. Just come with me to my room and I'll—"

"Are you kidding me?" my voice was barely above a whisper.

"What?"

"Do you really think I'd actually go with you to your room!?" My words flew out of my mouth, a violent maelstrom. "You aren't being serious, are you? Did you really believe that there's even a shred of trust from me in you anymore? You're a lot more of a dumbass than I thought."

Grimmjow narrowed his eyes, not saying anything in response. Then he vanished from the spot he was at and reappeared less than half a foot away from me, making a wild grab at my arm. I braced myself, clenching my teeth.

In a flash, I was shielded by Ulquiorra—I had forgotten he was there. His katana was unsheathed; with a swift swing, Grimmjow was barely able to dodge the attack.

"You are disgusting," Ulquiorra's every word was a sharp needle. "If Alexia wants to be left alone, you shall do so. It is a fraction of the least you can do to atone for this."

"Ulquiorra," I said, sidestepping around him to see his facial expression. A hurricane was brewing in his eyes. His right hand, which was wielding his sword, was clenching it as if it was the only thing he had left. _Wrath._

"No one told you to butt in," Grimmjow said, unsheathing his sword as well. My eyes widened. They weren't going to fight over this. They couldn't. Even if…

Even if, deep down, I wanted it to happen. I wanted to see Grimmjow be hurt for his actions. But having someone else do it for me wouldn't bring satisfaction. And physical damage wouldn't feel as good. Call me evil, selfish; I didn't care at this point.

"Ulquiorra, _you_," I refused to say the other name, "don't do this."

Ulquiorra sheathed his sword without protesting. Grimmjow, however, scowled and started toward Ulquiorra as he did so. He didn't have a chance to attack, Ulquiorra sonidoed out of sight before he could. They weren't listening to me (well, one of them obviously wasn't), which infuriated me.

"Hey, stop it!"

Grimmjow swung at Ulquiorra again, who blocked his strike by charging a bala against it. They both skidded backwards.

"Both of you, cut it out!"

Auria was almost killed as Grimmjow tried to attack once again, charging a bala of his own; she was in the way of that, but at the last second Szayel appeared, shoving Grimmjow's fist out of the way and making the bala impact the wall instead.

"Grimmjow, I would appreciate it if you didn't hurt other people whilst trying to land a punch on one person," he advised in a somewhat hostile manner. Grimmjow's scowl increased and he reluctantly backed off, sneaking a glance at me.

"Woman," Ulquiorra called, making his way over to me.

Suddenly, I didn't want to be near anyone. Backing away as Ulquiorra neared me, I stomped over to the couch and snatched the compass up. Thankfully, Ulquiorra got the message and didn't continue to pursue me.

"W-where are you going?" Grimmjow asked me.

My head snapped around to glare at him. "Away from you," I said coldly. "Don't even try to come after me or I'll personally see that you get your rank gets completely taken away from you _ahead_ of time."

With that, I left, slamming the doors behind me.

"Take me to the arsenal," I hissed at the compass.

In a few minutes, I had tied my loose hair back and gotten the katana that I'd used the last time. The arsenal was too quiet for my liking. My breathing was heavy, although it wasn't because I was exercising. I hadn't even started yet.

The sword seemed weightless in my hands as I swung it, conjuring an imaginary image of Nnoitora in front of me. Stab, slash, strike, swing…_why the hell are they all starting with "S"?_

Time passed. I wasn't sure how much time I'd been there since I'd left the lab, but I didn't care. All I wanted was to take out everything I'd been trying to contain. My feelings, actions, decisions that I wanted to change…each one was being recited in each attack.

_'Confusion. Anger. Stupid, damn, fucking love. Oblivion. Greed.'_

_ 'For being careless and getting too close. For not facing the facts. For making myself believe that I was actually in love.'_

Sweat was forming on my forehead. It barely occurred to me that swordplay while wearing a kimono wasn't exactly a great idea. I stopped for a moment to untie the obi and take off the yukata, leaving the (unusually) black hadajuban. Most of them were white; I'd never seen a black one before.

After I folded the other parts of the kimono and put them in a corner of the room, I resumed my activity. Finally, my arms started to shake from the strain I was putting on them. My breathing became heavier as time went on. It felt like an hour had passed when I decided to take a break. My anger riled up again when I saw that there was nowhere to rest. Giving a defeated sigh, I found a spot on the wall that wasn't covered in weapons and sat down, leaning against it.

I'd managed to calm myself a bit. I was still seething its anger, it just wasn't as intense as before. Taking it out physically played a part in it, I guess, and thinking about it also made me think a bit more rationally. Of course, with _her_ arguing with me, some of the anger still stayed.

_I should've tried to calm myself before I lashed out like that._

**'Are you kidding me!? No fucking way! Even if you did try to calm yourself, did you think all the anger would suddenly dissipate like magical pixie dust?'**

_No, but—_

** 'I told you there was something strange about all this! But noooo, you ignored me and—'**

_I didn't ignore you, but Grimmjow _was_ trying to hide all this from me_, I admitted. _He really shouldn't have, if he had just told me then maybe all this would be sorted out. It's just that…I know I'm not 347 years old._

**'Are you sure about that?'**

_Cellphones, computers and iPads existed when I was alive, I'm pretty sure I'm not that old._

** 'But like you said some time ago, it could be year 3000 right now for all you knew.'**

_ I was exaggerating. Besides, that isn't the point. Do you have any ideas why Grimmjow would want to keep something like that from me?_

** '…Because this is how you would react. If I had any powers I would've killed him on the spot.'**

_What!?_

** 'Don't 'what' me! Get this through your thick skull—'**

_Excuse m—_

**'He kissed you, held you, touched you, went in a hot spring with you completely naked, and yesterday he gave you a damn hickey!'**

I remained silent. My hand went up to the two spots on my neck and I involuntarily scowled. Hopefully a female arrancar had makeup of some sort, or Szayel had a remedy for bruises not gained through pain, because I wasn't going to be able to handle walking around with these marks on me. I didn't have any turtleneck shirts or sweaters, and I didn't have a scarf either. Then I realized I could get one for myself, since I had the compass.

"Alexia?" A deep female voice rang through my thoughts.

"Halibel…," I murmured, my eyes wide. Following her inside the room were Apache, Sun-sun and Mila Rose. As usual, Appache and Mila Rose were arguing over something while Sun-sun made remarks about them, only fueling their anger. "What are you doing here?"

"My fracciòn and I come here to train. And why are you here?" she responded. I bit my lip, wondering if I should tell her or not.

"I'm…letting off steam," I omitted the details. "Some things have been happening that are really pissing me off. I just wanted to let it all out."

"That must be unsatisfactory."

"Huh?"

"You are letting go of your anger, but there are no results becoming of it. If you'd like, I can have one of them battle with you," she turned her head towards her fracciòn, who realized that they were being called upon and fell silent. "That is only if you'd like."

"Oh, no. I don't want to interfere with your, er, activities. No offense or anything, but I don't really have the skills to go against one of them," I frantically waved my hands, emphasizing my decision.

"Is that really the reason?"

"Well…that and, um, they'd probably kill me within the first five seconds," I sweat dropped.

"Don't worry," Sun-sun assured. "We will go easy on you."

"At first, that is," Mila Rose added. "We'll gradually put more power into it."

"And then with my awesome finishing move, you'll regret ever challenging us in the first place!" Apache loudly proclaimed.

"No, you dumbass!" Mila Rose swung a fist at Apache's head but missed. "Mistress Halibel never told us to kill her!"

"Well, sorry! Geez, I didn't even say that I was going to kill her."

"Well, it sounded like it."

"That's not what I meant, though! You can never just shut the hell up, can you?" Apache unsheathed her katana and pointed it toward Mila Rose.

"Please, you two," Sun-sun said, a sleeve of her uniform covering her mouth as she spoke. "As strong as you may be, your stupidity can take over so easily that it would be a very simple action to kill you, even for Alexia."

"Sun-sun, shut up!" Apache and Mila Rose snapped their heads to yell at her. Next to me, Halibel let out a chuckle.

"Sun-sun, I take it you'll start training with her?" Halibel asked. Sun-sun wordlessly nodded in confirmation. "Mila Rose, Apache, you two will fight each other, learn each others' attacks. Pay more attention to how you communicate."

"Mistress Halibel, are you planning to train with us today?" Mila Rose inquired. Halibel nodded.

"In some time, I will fight against you two. Sun-sun, you will keep fighting Alexia, try to get her to use different weapons."

"Yes, Mistress Halibel," they all said in unison. With that, they all sonidoed to their places.

"Are you ready?" Sun-sun pulled a trident from the sleeve of her left arm. "Have you ever fought someone before?"

"Not really," I admitted. After all, swinging a sword on someone's arm wasn't what I would call a battle. I grasped the katana in my hands. In the blink of an eye, Sun-sun vanished and reappeared less than a foot away from me. I gasped. She made a motion to stab me and I closed my eyes.

_Damn, I didn't even last two seconds._

Nothing. My eyes opened a fraction of an inch. The trident was an inch away from my eyes, which made me tense up. Out of the corner of my eyes, everyone else had stopped what they were doing to gape at us.

"You need to work on your reflexes."

"…Okay," I breathed out, sighing in relief when Sun-sun withdrew her trident from my face.

For a few minutes, it was just her sonidoing around me. Whenever she appeared, I swung my sword in her direction, she disappeared and it started all over again. It was annoying, but I knew she wasn't doing it on purpose—well, technically she was, but she wasn't doing it to wear my patience out. Finally, I managed to cross swords with her a few times.

"Good," she complimented. "Now, footwork."

She stopped using sonido and instead parried with me; but I couldn't do that as much when she started maneuvering around my swings, even slipping through my legs. It was like playing a game of Twister, except the whole ground was where you could move. Of course, she was the only one doing it at first. Then I started doing some moves of my own, reading her patterns. If I swung and she went left, I knew that she would end up behind me, to my right. If I went for an overhead strike, she'd jump backwards and then thrust forward. I fell back and went right when she swung left. I held my sword diagonally across my torso when she tried to jab me, then pushed her off.

Once she knew that I was getting the hang of things, she increased her pace. Her trident narrowly passed my head a couple of times. I stumbled back after a minute or two. By then I was panting.

"For a human, you're a fast learner," she said.

"Y-yeah, but it's not really effective," I remarked between deep breaths. "I doubt I could go against an espada and win."

"Well, that's why you keep training. Just by simply sparring with me, your reflexes and maneuvering abilities have gone up, even if just a bit. Of course, they'll never compare to an actual arrancar—"

"Well…that's assuring."

"—But maybe you can do smaller things to contribute," a scowl made its way onto her face as she said so. "Although, the only reason that I do this is because Mistress Halibel wishes us to do so. I don't see anything special in Aizen. There's just something about him…

"Our minds are alike," I said with a smile, not saying what was on my mind: 'You _should_ be wary of him. After all, he does maim Halibel.'

My eyes flickered over to my watch. Realizing the time somehow hypnotized me; my muscles felt sore and it was a hassle to stand up. Three hours doing nothing but sparring. Deep down, I was sort of hoping that it was later in the afternoon, so I could just take a shower and immediately fall asleep. I'd deal with problems later.

My daydream came to an end abruptly when Halibel called her fracciòn to her side and bid me farewell before leaving to cool off. Sighing, I decided to do the same.

Once I had put my katana back and gathered up my things, my mind nagged at me. Turning my head around to glance at the sword again, I eventually turned around completely and walked back over. Taking it wouldn't be a big deal, right? Not like someone would notice right away, but having something as large as a sword hanging from my waist would be easy to notice. I needed something smaller.

Off to the left, what looked like a tool belt hung from a hook in the wall. Instead of tools, though, were differently sized daggers, all with shiny leather scabbards. The smallest one was no bigger than my pinkie, and the largest one was about the length from my shoulder to elbow. They were arranged according to size.

Talk about fashionable.

I assembled the belt around my upper waist, as if it was a substitute for the actual obi of the kimono.

I headed outside with no particular destination in mind. The compass seemed to know as well; it started to spin on its own. Why or how, I didn't know, but I didn't have anything better to do at the moment. Maybe it would lead me to something important.

It led me to the mall (I wasn't going to call it a mini-mall now that I'd seen its actual size), the Aeropostale store I'd visited long before. Yes, a week had been quite some time, in my perspective. If the compass somehow had an empathy link with me, it must've known I needed something for the marks on my neck.

In the far corner of the room, a series of shelves had at least a hundred different scarves; as I neared them, though, a frown appeared on my face when I saw them closer up. They all looked like scarves used during the Winter instead of thinner scarves that I was originally looking for. Unless I wanted to look like I had a cast on my neck, I would have to start a deeper search through the entire mall.

For half an hour or so, that was exactly what I did. The compass led me to various clothing stores. None of them had any scarves, and there weren't any cosmetic stores. Either Aizen didn't know what makeup was, or all the female arrancars were naturally beautiful. I didn't have a problem believing the latter. I wasn't exactly flawless, and I had some sort of birthmark on my back that was hard to see unless my back was bare, which didn't make it that big of a deal. I hated showing skin. But when I saw myself, I didn't see anything special. Maybe I just had a low self-esteem…

_Nah. I actually think greatly of myself. Alexia, you are quite the narcissist._

Giving a chuckle, I realized my feet were starting to feel sore. Sword fighting followed by walking for a long period of time would definitely wear out my haven't-exercised-in-a-while body. The last store that I went to had aisles of nail polish, which infuriated me. I looked down at the compass, my eyes scolding it. _When I said that I wanted a scarf, I didn't mean that I wanted to paint my nails._ Then I glanced back at the store.

I took a few while I was at it.

Finally, I gave up and mustered up my courage; I was damned if I went to Szayel's lab and saw that Grimmjow was still there. There was no other choice, though.

Szayel took longer in realizing that I was outside of his lab. Twenty minutes seemed like a millennia to me when he finally opened the door. The panel slid out and he started to say something, but I ignored him and went inside. What had he said a week ago?

_'I actually detected Grimmjow's feelings for you before he himself did. I chose to not tell you purely out of my own decision. I think it was the third day that you were settled in that I told him, and by the sixth he'd accepted his feelings.'_

A smirk made its way onto my face. Szayel was also one to blame, apparently.

Szayel's eyebrows furrowed the moment he saw me. "Are you planning to launch an attack on the World of the Living, Ale—"

"I need something for this," I briskly interrupted him, showing him the two marks on my neck.

"Ah, I saw these earlier," Szayel commented, gently pressuring the two bruises with his index finger. "I could give you two of my healing pills, but I'm not sure if they'll work."

"They worked with my ankle, didn't they? You can do the same for a bruise." I was keenly aware of my annoyed tone of voice, and did nothing to change it.

"Apparently, these bruises aren't heavy injuries. Those pills were made especially for severe injuries; broken bones, sprains…not minor bruises that weren't acquired by pai—"

"You don't need to remind me," I crossed my arms, glaring at him. Concern crossed his face. I sighed exasperatedly. "Is there anything at all?"

"No," Szayel admitted.

"That's all I needed to hear, thanks." There was zero percent sarcasm in my voice, probably all worn out from my argument with Jeagerjaques. Turning on my heel, I walked over to the door and was stopped by Szayel, sonidoing a second prior, a mere foot from the exit to this place.

"Please, try to understand Grimmjow's situation."

"How am I supposed to do that?" I asked desperately, angrily. "I don't get him at all. If he knew I was his sister then why did he hide it from me? He said that he'd found out in his dream; but when I asked him about it he refused to answer. Now he apparently thinks that I can just forgive him, just like that, now that he's told me. I'm not sure to what extent his stupidity reaches, but it's pretty damn high in my perspective."

There I went again, blowing off hidden steam. And there was still some more left in me.

"Alexia…," started Szayel, one arm folded with the elbow of his other arm resting on it, his hand supporting his chin. "You'll eventually forgive him, won't you?" The question hung in the air as I simply stared at him and proceeded to head out, craning my neck around before completely taking my leave.

"I don't know," my voice was barely above a whisper.

I didn't ponder over anything on my way to my room, just simply concentrated on my feet. Left, right, left, right, left, right, le—I wasn't watching the path ahead of me and almost crashed into a wall. Sighing, I continued my path and took note of where I was going.

"Awww, look," that leery voiced called out. _Just what I fucking needed to top this day off._ "Lexi's all alone. I wonder why that is, Tes."

"…You've brought Tesla with you?" I asked in a surprisingly calm tone, as if I was speaking to an acquaintance and not a nemesis. Tesla peeked his head out from behind Nnoitora.

"Alexia." Tesla's voice cracked and he vanished behind Nnoitora again.

"The fuck's wrong with you?" Nnoitora ordered, stepping out of the way so I could see Tesla's whole body.

"Um…"

"Anyways, you're not escaping today," Nnoitora completely ignored Tesla and sonidoed to me, grabbing a fistful of my hair. Keeping my expression constant, the only giveaway of my thoughts were a raised eyebrow.

"I've escaped before, and I plan to do it again," I said. "I'm also not in the mood to put up with your stupid half-assed taunts that are only further humiliating you."

A tug on my hair. "I guess today's my lucky day, huh?"

"Don't talk on my behalf, Mr. I Think That I Can Still Whore Around Even Though I Clearly Like A Certain Person Next To Me."

"…What the fuck are you talking about?" Nnoitora cackled. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Tesla, his head inclined forward to hide his expression. "This mother fucking bitch thinks that I like—how messed up has your goddamn head gotten? Are you crazy?"

"Master Nnoitora—" Tesla started.

"Oh no, I'm not done," he wiped an imaginary tear from his eye. "So, you apparently think this piece of shit deserves to even get looked at like that, by me?! You're so fucking retarded, I should have you—"

"The only retarded one is you," I hissed. In a second, I swiped a dagger off of the belt around my waist and stabbed his eye—or tried to. In reality, the sword didn't damage his eye at all (which freaked me out for a second, before I remembered his hierro), but it gave him a start anyways. His grip on my hair lessened and I quickly retreated from him. Fear struck me when he snarled at me and removed his lunar double-sided sword. More like a grim reaper's scythe.

"You're dead, bitch," he stomped towards me. My mind still hadn't processed the fact that he could kill me so easily, as easy as stepping on a twig and breaking it in half. "You're gonna regret—"

A sound of two swords clanging brought me out of my half-trance. In front of me, Tesla stood. His sword was barely holding up the weight of Santa Teresa. Nnoitora's eye was as wide as a tennis ball, realizing that his fracciòn was going against him.

"Master Nnoitora, I—" Tesla was easily pushed back and out of the way. "Please, Master Nnoitora—"

"You sound so fuckin' pathetic!" Nnoitora spat at him. "And you—" his scythe pointed in my direction, "—don't you dare go say shit like that!"

"I'll say it whenever I want; it's true, isn't it?" I responded. My patience-o-meter was rising fast.

"I'm getting tired of your little remarks, dipshit. Either way, you don't have any proof of us ever—"

The patience-o-meter practically exploded at that point.

"You think I didn't see you guys yesterday?" I started. "Or saw what you guys looked like a few days ago? You're making it so damn obvious that it's making my head hurt. I'm sure your lapdog knows, but you only listen to him when you're in a pre-fucking session, don't you?"

Nnoitora sputtered, unable to form a full sentence. "Y-you, I mean—how the fuck—but no one was—how—"

"Ah…" Tesla's face turned beet red.

"I don't see why you're torturing him like this," I scolded. Nnoitora's sword could've been made of styrofoam for all I cared. "If you already have someone that actually cares for you and you know it, then why the fuck are you still doing this!?"

Nnoitora snickered; apparently he had already recovered from my discovery. "So you think I fuck him a few times and I automatically love the bastard?"

"From what I heard yesterday, yes."

"…Tch…" Nnoitora glared daggers at Tesla, who narrowed his eyes nervously in response. Then he abruptly turned around and stalked off. Tesla stood in shock, his one eye widened and glancing over at me.

"M-mast—"

"Are you going to stay there like a fucking statue or are you going to be the obedient bastard you are and follow me!?" Nnoitora exclaimed. Tesla started and immediately followed him. Behind his back, he gave me a small wave.

At the moment I was too angered to feel achieved.

The compass directed me to my room and I hastily swung the door open, slamming it behind me and flopping down on my bed—or I would've, of I hadn't remembered the knives around my waist. Pretty much could've killed myself trying to relax. I unbuckled the belt and set it on my dresser. Then, abandoning the Go Into Deep Sleep And (Hopefully) Hibernation plan, I decided to take a shower.

Which turned into a two-hour-long bath. It didn't help that I almost fell asleep in the process and nearly drowned. The hot water calmed my overly tense muscles and I relaxed. Everything was trying to kill me today, apparently.

_Hey, you._

** '…'**

_You've been awfully quiet, ever since we were at the weapons' room_, I noted. _No cunning remarks or facts that you want to tell me?_

** '…'**

_ Are you even alive?_

** 'Stupid, I can't die unless you do.'**

_Really? Are you, like, a zanpakuto or something? _I was suddenly very interested in this mysterious, know-it-all, cocky, blunt, arrogant, annoying—

Point made, I wanted to know who she was and why she existed.

** 'You're sure you want to know?'**

_Why wouldn't I?_

**'Well, I think you've had enough revelations bestowed upon you today.'**

_ I can handle it, thank you very much._

** 'You're not going to freak or block me out of your mind forever when I tell you?'**

Her last question made me hesitate. _Did_ I really want to know? I'd already had my fair share of crazy shit today, most of it caused by one singular bastard. I sighed loudly.

_Can it wait?_

**'I'm glad you asked,'** she also breathed out a sigh of relief. **'We'll save it for a day when you need to know.'**

_Yeah, just don't replay the events that happened today. I don't want to know that my twin sister has been living inside my body since I was born._

**'Hehe…no, it's nothing like that,' **she deadpanned. **'But then again, it's a bit similar.'**

_Keep it to yourself for now, remember?_ I reminded her, unplugging the drain pf the tub and watching as the water turned into a mini-whirlpool, being sucked into the pipes, then to who knows where. _Besides, I have something else I'm preoccupied with right now._

**'Huh? And what would that be?'**

I wrapped a towel around my body. Using another one, I wrapped it around my hair and wrapped it around my hair and head. As soon as my hair was out of the way I unconsciously rubbed the hickeys on my neck.

** 'Ohhhh~ those stupid trademarks on your neck.'**

"They're not any type of fucking trademarks," I hissed, half-annoyed. "And I have something to cover them."

**'I saw myself, there wasn't any makeup at those stores. How exactly are you planning to do this?'**

I hastily grabbed white, yellow, orange and brown paint from the cart next to my bed.

**'Oh. Uh, are you sure you can do this?'**

_I won first place in my school's fine arts festival, I think I know how to mix paint_. I dragged an easel out and set it up with a struggle. The pain in my arms from my training/anger management hadn't subsided quite yet.

For some unknown reason, whenever I was starting a painting or drawing of some sort, I got extremely mathematical. I squirted out a blotch of white and added a few drops of brown, then mixed it with my fingers, then wrote a "1" and circled it, marking it as the first combination of colors. I had a medium-sized bucket settled on the easel's sill, in which I dipped my hand and washed away the paint. On the next few, I wrote down the paint I'd used with those colors themselves.

**2) White+4 Orange+2 Yellow**

**3) White+10 brown+3 Yellow**

**4) White+6 orange+3 Brown**

The paint dried surprisingly fast, which helped me see which of the combinations were more like my skin's hue. I held up the underside of my arm, comparing it to each of the colors. It seemed like two and one were the closest, but weren't identical, which would cause a bit of confusion if someone saw. Using my paint formulas, I mixed up one and two, then waited for the paint to dry.

Once it was dry, I compared it again. "Perfect," I noted happily, relieved. Using the same paint, I created more of it and put it on a palette. Once I was done with that I got a new brush and went over to the mirror.

I hated looking in a mirror. Left was right, forward was back, in was out—it was technically Shinji Hirako's world. I put a finger on one of the bruises and carefully covered the brush's tip with paint, then painted over the hickey thoroughly. The same was repeated and, by the time I was done, the paint had almost completely dried. The only way I could tell that was because of the fact that I didn't know where the bruises were anymore. _Well, that's over and done with._

Sighing, I went out and searched for something comfortable for sleeping. Surprisingly, I hadn't realized that I'd taken a cotton nightgown with me. It looked like a normal dress, but it was too soft and…well, sleepwear-ish to be considered casual clothing. It tied at the mid-torso, the rest of it flowing. The sleeves reached all the way to my fingertips, and the neckline was low-cut, but didn't show too much skin. After some thought, I still put on some leggings under the dress and ballet slippers. Putting my watch on, I went back to the bathroom.

I let my hair go, pleased to see that it was a bit curled. After brushing it out, I quickly separated my hair into nine parts, then made nine braids, used those to made three more, and then weaved it into one giant braid. By the time I woke up, it would all be semi-wavy. I secretly longed for wavy hair and thought that straight hair was too plain, but when it came to Ulquiorra's hair it fit his personality. I couldn't imagine him with Stark's wavy hair, much less an afro. I burst out in laughter, trying to imagine it. Sorta reminded me of Yumichika Ayasegawa, when he'd gotten beat by Ganju and his hair had pretty much turned into an afro from the firework that had been set off right in his face.

Except, I just couldn't imagine that with Ulquiorra.

A knock on the door stopped my laughter. I only stared warily at the door, wondering if I should open it. What if it was Grimmjow? That gave me even more reason not to answer. But curiosity got the best of me and I eventually walked over slowly. It was strange that I didn't feel too surprised to discover who was at the door.

"Ulquiorra."

He didn't respond and instead just stood there, staring. I raised an eyebrow. When a few more seconds passed and he still hadn't said anything, I cleared my throat and started again. "Um, is there a reason that you're visiting me at…," I checked my watch, "10:38 in the evening?"

"Yes," he responded. "Did you forget something when we were at Szayelapporo's laboratory?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I am just making sure."

"Well…if I remember correctly, I walked there barehanded," I recalled hesitantly. Ulquiorra gave a small sigh, his lips parting only a millimeter when doing so.

"Something…_alive_?"

"Eh?"

_Ohhhhhh…_

"Ah, I forgot her when I stormed out," I hung my head, shielding my pissed off expression. "It was all really sudden so I wasn't thinking about her."

"Well, I had to take her back with me," he informed me. Then I realized that there were subtle differences in his appearances. His hair was slightly disheveled, the uniform had small black tufts of fur (scales?) on it and there was a scratch on his right cheek. His expression was slightly more annoyed, even with the fact that he was wrathful today. I sweat dropped.

"Ah, what exactly did you do with her?"

"I thought she was a calm type of animal. I was proved wrong completely when she started scampering everywhere in my room. I didn't think that something as small as her was able to topple over a bookshelf."

"Feka…," I warned as she appeared on cue, her head poking out from behind Ulquiorra's legs. Her ears were flat against her head, her rattle shaking slowly in nervousness. She quickly ran over to me and curled up at my feet.

"And you manage to cope with her," Ulquiorra stated more than asked.

"Yeah, when you can't resist animals like her it's easy to forget that they can be a handful." Biting my lip, I took a step toward Ulquiorra and gently traced the scratch on his cheek. "I'm not going to ask you if you're alright because I already know, but…there's something I find strange."

"…"

"The fact that hierro protects your skin from being cut by incredibly sharp swords but doesn't protect you from a cat's claw."

"Well, everything has its flaws," Ulquiorra responded nonchalantly. I smiled slightly, shifting my feet awkwardly.

"Ah, if you want I'll help you clean up your room," I offered, stepping completely outside and locking the door behind me, giving Feka a look that said, 'If you wreck anything, I will personally see to it that you're killed.'

Of course, I wouldn't really do that.

"It is not mandatory," he declined my offer.

"But I feel like this is all my fault, and technically it is."

"You do not have to."

"I want to."

"But—"

"Ulquiorra, I'm going to help you whether you want me to or not. I need to keep my mind busy or it'll keep wandering off to _him_." Without naming names, he knew who I was referring to. After a moment's hesitation, he nodded and walked away, knowing that I would follow.

As we entered his room, clutters of…everything…was strewn all over the room. The bed sheets were crumpled, the pillow by my feet; his bookshelf had indeed toppled over, and now at least two hundred books were half-open, crushed by the shelf or untouched—or so they seemed. In actuality they were only closed, and weren't covered by anything. Even though I took a cautious step forward, I automatically winced when I heard something crumple beneath my feet. I lifted my foot hesitantly and saw that I'd stepped on _War and Peace._

"Ah…sorry."

"It is fine," Ulquiorra replied boredly, walking on a fair share of his belongings. He kept going, regardless, and reached the toppled bookshelf. The way he lifted it so effortlessly made me think of an ant lifting up a food crumb six times its weight. He paused once the bookshelf was back in place and looked over at me, his expression saying something like, 'What? Seriously, it wasn't that difficult.'

"Oh, I'll get the books," I advised him, "So, er, you can get the rest."

"Are you not doing too much?" he asked, but did as he was suggested to. I shrugged and crouched down, picking up piles upon piles of books and balancing them. Once I was handling about twenty of them, I struggled to get up again and lost my balance, bumping into something and falling with a yelp.

Well, more like someone.

"Dammit, sorry about this," I apologized. My head rested on the upper abdomen of Ulquiorra's torso, Wuthering Heights covering his face. He made no move to take it off of his face, which I did a few seconds of silence later. "Well, let's start again."

"Alexia, do you mind not having your hand in my hollow hole?"

"C-crap, I'm not doing that on purpose," I stuttered, quickly retreating my other hand from that spot. I glanced at his expression and saw that there was a small blush on his cheeks, which made mine flare quite a bit as well. "We should…get going."

An awkward silence filled the room as we cleaned up. After what seemed like an hour but was really only fifteen minutes, we had put everything in their proper places. I was out of energy by then and forgot about getting back to my room. The last thought I had was:

_Ulquiorra's bed is a lot comfier than I remember._

WMWMWMWMWMWMWM

Me: So…I bet you're really enjoying that, aren't you? (Glares at Desire)

Desire: (Happily eats cheesecake in a teasing manner) Too bad you didn't get the last piece :D

Alexia: *-,* S-so what, we can just make some more.

(Fifteen minutes later)

Alexia: Grimmjow, just how much cheesecake did you make?

Grimmjow: Well, we all have horses' appetites, so I just used as much of the ingredients as I could and, yeah…

Me: Dammit, now we can't make any!

Desire: (Smirks)

Alexia and I: Shut up!

Desire: I didn't even say anything ^_^

Ulquiorra: If you desire—

Desire: What about me?

Ulquiorra: (Ignores)—to know what happens next in Arekushia's story, please review.

Me: Well, I'll update either way ^_^ I'm going to attempt to switch POVs :3 I'm sorta scared...

Desire: Is there more cheesecake in the next chapter?

Alexia and I: You're supposed to be on a goddamn diet T_T***

Desire: Well, I think that a few pieces aren't going to hurt me T_T S'not my fault that you're not as beast as I am ;)

Me: (Eye twitch) One day this is all gonna bite you in the ass.

Desire: (Shrugs and continues eating) Yolo.


	15. In my eyes…

Ulquiorra: Something about today seems…

Me: ULQUIORRA! (Glomps) You know what today is, right?

Grimmjow: I thought you were trying to kill the poor bastard -.-'

Alexia: Hey, Ulqui-cielago! Happy bir—

Me: BIRTHDAY!

Ulquiorra: …So that's what it was T_T

Alexia and I: ^_^'

Alexia: I got you something!

Me: So did I!

Alexia: We both made it for you, actually! Here, a huge ca—(points to cake, which Grimmjow is eating)

Grimmjow: Nomnomnomno—whatsa mather wit you guysh?

Me: Y-you…(evil aura)

Alexia: TT_TT You ate his birthday cake, you bastard!

Ulquiorra: T_T Can I kill him now?

All except Grimmjow: Should we…I wanted some of that cake…it wasn't supposed to be his…

Grimmjow: Hey, stop conspiring behind my back!

Alexia and I: Shut up! You brought this upon yourself!

Grimmjow: Uh…while I run away from here, you guys can read the next chapter -.-'

She is quite forgetful sometimes.

I thought that by now she would have gone back to her quarters. Instead, I come out of the washroom to find her passed out on my bed. Her long dark-brown hair was weaved in several braids, then put together into one, and her mouth was parted. It seemed like she never gave a thought about my wanting to sleep as well.

As if she was reading my mind, she turned in her sleep, leaving some space. The bed called to me and I couldn't resist. But when I laid down, I wasn't drowsy. I stared at her.

I am sure that if someone saw me they would think I was going insane, actually paying some attention to someone other than Lord Aizen. There was something about this girl that made me interested. It irritated me—even though I told myself to not get attached, that was exactly what was happening. I have caressed her, talked to her as if she was someone I knew for a long time. Every time she had visited, when I was ill, it was the main event of my day. Even now, I felt comfortable in her company.

Going out of my thoughts, I observed her. Her eyebrows furrowed and she turned over, her back to me. I sighed and tried to fall into slumber myself. The one time that someone had seen me asleep, they commented on it, saying that I looked like I was dead, my hands folded on my lower chest and my whole body completely straight.

Sleep seemed to be running away from me.

I went back into the washroom and decided to take a shower. Water calmed my muscles and always managed to clear my mind. I reveled in the way it dampened my hair—and partially regretted having a mask covering part of it. It reminded me of my loyalty to Lord Aizen, though; I would never be able to repay him for giving me a reason not to linger in the endless void in which I had submerged myself some 50 years ago. I had learned quickly that survival required one to kill without any thought but that of living for a longer time.

At the dark pit where I had began my existence as a hollow, those around me had no desire to live civilized. They ate the beings around them, although they were considered "comrades". I only watched; they were dark, their only brightness found in the glint of their sharp, carnivorous teeth. On the contrary, I was covered in white, my being shelled by the hollow mask that confined me. The only actual part of me visible were my eyes, the longer strands of hair I used to have and my wings that were found on my lower back at that time. Soon, they found me, a small creature covered in white that seemed like an ant to them. They tried to kill me, and I almost let them. Then something in me ticked.

I'd killed them all. After that I'd climbed out of the pit and wandered with no destination in mind. Nothing held my interest. Everything was…nothing. All of my senses did not exist, and if they did they did not function at all. The feeling was akin to paralyzation. Years passed. How many, I did not know. Some time later, I saw something.

It was a crystalline tree, the ones scattered all over Hueco Mundo's endless desert. It was more than a hundred times larger than those, and radiated a bright light and a feeling of what I had felt the whole time I'd been wandering, and even before that. It instantly caught my attention, the first thing ever to do so. It closely symbolized what my life had been composed of; only existence, nothing else. The white branches seemed to be weaving through, making a path for me and beckoning me to come forward and lose myself in them.

I did. I paid no heed to the hollow bone covering my body, that was now crumbling away. All of my being felt exposed to this great, vast expanse of nothing. The farther I went, the more I realized that there was no end. Yet, something stirred in me when I knew it, and I kept going until I was sure. Sure that escaping from this expanse was impossible. Nothing. It caused me to feel happiness. If only everything was this way.

That was what I'd thought. I was blinding myself, and the crystalline branches were solidifying that fact. Who knew how long time had progressed. My spiritual pressure was causing the tree to be sapped of its power. Each time a branch crumbled and fell, I knew it was nearing the time to leave and wander again. Nothing mattered, though. As long as I was in the void, I felt happy, nonexistent. It was until someone had demolished the tree to bits right before my eyes that I snapped out of my hypnotized state.

That someone was Aizen Sôsuke.

_"Oi, are ya sure there's someone there, captain Aizen?"_

_ "Look there, Gin." A pause._

_ "…Woah, I see 'im! How'd ya detect that kid in all tha' stuff?"_

_ "Gin, if you had tried to detect his spiritual pressure you'd find that the tree's energy centered on him." A different voice than the other two._

_ "Ah, all I'm doin' is givin' a lil' praise."_

_ "Well, why don't we greet our new friend?" the man I presumed was Aizen suggested. The sound of footsteps sounded closer with each step those people took. Finally, movement was caught out of the corner of my eyes. The three people neared ever closer, but did not venture into the bush's branches._

_"Hey there!"_

_ "Gin, that isn't the way to greet someone you do not know." The third voice._

_ "Appearing as friendly beings is a good idea, Tôsen; but Gin, try not to be too enthusiastic. We don't want to scare our acquaintance." No one spoke for a while. Then the same person, Aizen, said something directed to me. "I am Aizen Sôsuke. The people with me are Gin Ichimaru and Kaname Tôsen. May I ask your name, arrancar?"_

Arrancar?

_ "Can you talk?"_

_ "…" I had never spoken even once in my life. My mouth opened slowly, a foreign feeling taking place in my throat as I replied. "Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra Schiffer." A few more branches crumbled and gave me a better view of the strangers' faces._

_ One of the faces had chin-length, wavy brown hair. It was pulled back, but a strand of hair still fell forward. His gaze held something I couldn't quite identify yet. The other one had medium long black hair. His skin was dark and he wore glasses of some sort. His eyes did not seem to be looking at anything in particular. The last one had straight, silver hair. A massive grin was, apparently, permanently plastered to his face, along with eyes that looked like they were squinted all the time. _A fox_, I thought to myself._

_ "Ulquiorra," my name was repeated by Aizen. "How long have you been here?"_

_ "…I do not know."_

_ "Do you know why you are here?"_

_ "…" I was not about to tell a complete stranger what my inner thoughts were._

_ "Would you like to leave?"_

_ The question was somewhat unexpected. What I didn't expect was having to answer him when he repeated himself and looked me in the eye. I stared back, my stare not letting any of my thoughts slip._

_ "No."_

_ The fox-faced man smiled even wider, if possible. "Wha's this? Ya attached to this place 'r somethin'?"_

_ "Now, let's not taunt the fellow too much, Gin."_

_ "Hey, I can see 'is face. He looks like 'e's cryin'." Slowly, I sat up. Several more branches fell. It was only a matter of time until everything caved in on me. "Oi, why dontcha come wit us?"_

_As they descended into the branches and next to me (with Gin making remarks about the branches scratching him too much), I desperately wished they would leave me here. Having nothing to live for was pleasant, but now these three had interrupted the flow of that._

_ "We are forming a powerful army," the one I assumed was Tôsen said. "You possess great spiritual power and have already become an arrancar."_

_ "How?" I asked._

_ "Well, ya walked through dis giant shrub o' spikes, so parts of yer hollow bone fell off. Now…just look at cha." Aizen took out a sphere. Just from looking at it, I could tell that it was incredibly powerful. In my reflection, it proved that Gin was right._

_ All of the hollow bone covering my face was gone, and now the only thing that remained was a helmet-like shape on my head. All of the thin pieces of hollow bone that covered my body was gone, leaving me bare. Intense emerald eyes stared at me, and I noticed two tear streaks that did made it look as if I was weeping. That was what I really looked like, underneath my shell. I would have liked to say that it didn't surprise me._

_ "With this, we can complete your transformation from vasto lorde to arrancar," Aizen told me. "You will gain greater power. With the rest of our army, you will find a place where you and your comrades will belong."_

_ The narrowing of my eyes went unnoticed by them. I brung myself to say what was on my mind. "I do not need this transformation, nor do I want it. I do not need power. It makes one insane; I know this first-hand. The last time I had any comrades, they all killed each other like savages, then targeted me—" I stopped abruptly when I realized I had said too much._

_ "So, why are you still alive?" Aizen asked casually. I averted my gaze from his and suddenly found my clawed feet interesting. "Did you run away?"_

_ "…I killed them all."_

_ The three of them exchanged glances, then stood up. Gin and Tôsen left the scene, leaving me with Aizen._

I was startled, the reality coming back to me. _Shower_. I quickly finished up; but I couldn't stop myself from remembering the rest.

_ "Tell me, why are you here?"_

_ "I do not see a reason for which I should tell you."_

_ Aizen's eyes narrowed a fraction of an inch. A massive increase in spiritual pressure made dozens of branches turn to dust. The sphere in his hand began to glow. "Well, I assure you that there is more to your life than lying in a pile of twigs and waiting for your death."_

_ I didn't see a problem with that. After all, I'd found something that I'd truly felt a connection to, and now it was—okay, so there was a bit of a problem. It was going to collapse on me any of these days. Normally I wouldn't care; moreover, I'd probably decide to die this way. Now these people wanted me to come with them and join an army?_

_ …I was supposed to be looking for reasons _not_ to go. I _didn't_ want this._

_ "You do realize that you have no say in your situation anymore?" he said._

_ "What do you mean?" Suddenly, everything seemed distant, as if I was watching from the sidelines. A light pounding started in my head, gradually getting louder and stronger. My hand went to my forehead and tried to force the pain out of me, sending spiritual pressure into my head. If anything, I made it worse. "What are you doing, Aizen Sôsuke?"_

_ "The hogyoku and I will transform you, Ulquiorra Schiffer," Aizen answered with a smile. That was the last thing I saw before being overcome by darkness._

And I ended up here. Of course, there was more to it than just that, but it was pointless to remember. After I had finished my shower and put on another one of the same uniform outfits I wore, I came out of the bathroom and saw Alexia, still asleep. She was turning every few seconds, her eyebrows furrowing. Walking to her side, I began to watch her again. She eventually settled down and I took advantage of that. It was difficult to do without her help, but I managed to hoist her on my back, her arms lazily hanging around my neck and her legs around my waist, held by me. If she was awake she'd probably be making a fuss over it. Foolish.

"…Hm." With the lack of seeing her face, I couldn't tell if she was waking up or just making a sound in her slumber. I left my room, shutting the door behind me, and made haste to her room. That didn't affect the appearance of a certain person.

"Ulquiorra." That voice. Grimmjow.

"What do you want, Sexta?" I boredly replied. Hopefully Jeagerjaques would get the message portrayed to him and not bother me any further.

"Was Alexia in your room right now?"

"And why is it of your concern?"

"…Tch." Grimmjow sonidoed in front of me, apparently thinking he could block my path. I glared at him, although knowing how I looked it would just seem like my stare became just a bit more hostile than it already was. "What are you going to do with her?"

"What does it look like? I am taking her back to her room so she can rest properly. I also need rest and am not planning to sleep with her next to me. She has a tendency to move around too much."

"I'll take her." He made a move to take her from me and I stepped away.

"I am perfectly capable of taking her myself."

"So am I."

"Grimmjow Jeagerjaques, do not make me—"

"Make you what?" Grimmjow hissed. "I'm not going anywhere."

My eyes narrowed for half a second, and in one swift movement I had him pinned to the wall, my hand having a choke hold on his neck while still supporting Alexia on my back. I felt his throat constricting, trying to let air course through his body. His skin became a bit paler. "If you wish to live, then do not interfere, trash." I shoved him away and kept walking, hearing the sixth cough a few times. Several curses were also said.

"Y-you bastard…"

I ignored him and kept walking.

When I arrived at her room, I thought I could've slipped in, left her on her bed and left. She apparently chose to wake up right when I entered.

"…What…Ulquiorra?" her voice whispered in my ear. "Why are you…"

"You fell asleep in my quarters and I decided to take you back to your room."

"Oh. Thanks," she said and gave a soft yawn, her breath fanning over my neck. "Have you slept?"

"I am about to."

"You should've woken me up sooner so you could get more sleep."

"Sleep isn't necessary for arrancars, but it's a matter of schedule to do so."

"…Oh. Ok." I set her down on her bed but she clung to my neck, giving me a firm squeeze that I assumed was a hug before letting go. "Am I going to see you anytime soon?"

"I am going to question Aizen about who your warden is going to be, since it used to be me. If it is Grimmjow, I am not sure you will be satisfied with that."

"…Definitely not." She was awake enough to pull the covers back so she could go underneath them. While doing that, the neckline of her gown slipped over one shoulder, revealing a strap beneath.

"Woman, you might want to fix your clothing."

"Eh?" She looked at herself and a timid shade of red tinged her cheeks. She did that frequently; why, I had no idea. "Ah, sorry." She quickly pulled the gown over the strap again and kicked off her slippers.

"There is no reason to apologize, I was only informing you. I will leave now."

"…You really are back to how you used to be," she noted, going under the covers and bringing them up to her chin. "But it's not like I can ask you to act how you did when you were bedridden. First of all, that's just selfish; and two, if you did that would be exposing you to your other half."

Just the mention of him had my mind reeling in disgust. The hands that were in my hakama's pockets clenched a bit, then unclenched. Thinking of him reminded me of my past, which I was trying not to think about.

"Ulquiorra? Are you okay?"

"…I did not need you to tell me this in order for me to figure it out," I remarked.

"Well geez, I was just concerned about you, but if you don't like it I can be cold or something," she huffed briskly, pulling the covers over her head.

"You do not need to worry for me."

"I wasn't worried. I'm just…curious."

"That is a very weak excuse."

"…"

I left without another word, heading to my room again. The place where she'd slept was already cold, showing no sign of her presence. Soon, I finally fell into slumber in that same spot.

It did not last long. It had to be only about five or six hours later that I woke up. Knowing how much I'd slept while I was 'ill' (saying it in that way because I wouldn't have called it that), I could probably go for more than a week without a blink and not be affected. Getting up, I stepped over to the small window next to my bed, revealing the artificial dome of Las Noches. I would've much preferred to have the moon of Hueco Mundo seen there instead of the sky-blue sky that we all knew couldn't exist in a place like this.

"Hey, Ulqui-chan," Gin Ichimaru's voice alerted me of his arrival. "Aizen already 'as some missions fer ya, so ya should get ready so ya can get started right away."

"Gin."

"Ne, why're ya so cold? S'givin me da chills, ya know." Gin rubbed the upper side of his arms to emphasize.

"I will go to the meeting room in about three minutes, I would appreciate it if you would leave me so I may dress myself." Gin seemed to grin even wider as I said that, but left regardless. Sighing, I quickly zipped up my jacket and smoothed out my outfit. I was thoughtless to sleep with it on. Going into the bathroom, I calmed my slightly disheveled hair and stepped out, leaving my room and heading towards the meeting room.

I'm not exactly convinced why, but I had a moment's hesitation when I reached the room and put a hand on the door's handle. The feeling was somewhat nostalgic. Whether that was fortunate or not was something I couldn't decide right now.

"Welcome back, my dear fourth," Lord Aizen greeted me. "How are you?"

I knew that wasn't a question to be answered and said, "Lord Aizen, forgive me for my absence." I bowed down to him and he only smiled, holding a hand out, palms up, in forgiveness.

"What matters is that you're still here, don't you think?"

"Yes, Lord Aizen."

"Don't be so formal with me. Why don't you act more like Grimmjow or Nnoitora?"

Please, anyone but them.

"As Gin has probably informed you, there are several tasks I would like you to carry out," he dismissed his former question and continued. I nodded to confirm his suspicions. "I have prepared a list. I trust that you will get everything done?"

"Yes, my lord," I bowed once again and stepped forward, Lord Aizen also walking towards me and holding out the list. It was roughly about two feet in length, and knowing how Lord Aizen's handwriting was, there had to be at least fifty different tasks for me to complete. It was going to be a long, tedious day.

"You may take your leave now, Ulquiorra," Aizen instructed.

"Yes, sir," I responded, turning my back on him and heading to the doors. Giving the long list a quick scan, the words were instantly recorded by my eye. I folded the list until it was a small square and put it in my pocket.

"Ah, and one more thing," Aizen's voice stopped me from completely leaving the room.

"Yes, Lord Aizen?"

"How is Alexia?"

"Excuse me?"

"Have you seen any sort of change in her, be it physical or emotional?" he elaborated.

"…Would it not be more appropriate to ask Grimmjow, who has been spending more time with her than I?" I answered. Very rarely did I ever disagree with Lord Aizen, so when I did, it gave me a sense of self-scorn and wariness.

"You could be correct, but I would like to hear something from _you_," Aizen countered, further confusing me. _Why?_ My mind told me to refrain from saying that, though. "Well?"

"At first…," I started hesitantly, "She was acting apologetic."

"In what way?" he asked, a small smile appearing on his face. For the first time, a feeling of unease settled in me.

"Well…she force fed me."

"…Ah…"

"Now that I think about it, that was not apologetic at all. But she treated me like a child."

"She thought you were acting immature?"

"Not necessarily…but she took it upon herself to take care of all my needs, as if I was not capable of doing one thing by myself."

"What else?"

"…Well…"

"You aren't a very social person, are you?"

_ If you have not noticed already…_

"That isn't a problem, though," Aizen continued. "After all, you can use your eye instead."

I gulped. Suddenly, all the events over the week flashed through my left eye while my right kept the image of Aizen's form standing in front of me. When my eye did that, I knew it was preparing to relay the images conjured. My eye…there wasn't a problem with crushing it, but…

Wait. _Why should it matter in the first place? I am supposed to follow Aizen's orders without fail. That woman shouldn't be interfering with my decisions. So…why am I thinking about her so frequently?_ I forcefully retracted the images from my eye. A lie would have to do for now.

"I would not have a problem with destroying my eye. But Szayelapporo has instructed me to not inflict damage to my body until a few days from now," I said. "I apologize for—"

"It's quite alright," Aizen interrupted. "Well, now you are free to go." I gave a small bow and left the room, shutting the door quietly behind me.

Never before had I felt like slamming the door so hard it would break in half.

**TWELVE HOURS LATER**

"Like this?"

"Yes. Do not attempt to mix the two substances together ever again. Cleaning up this mess was work enough," I said.

"Thank you, Lord Ulquiorra!"

"Do not say 'Lord Ulquiorra'. Our lord is Aizen."

"Ah…well, thank you, Ulquiorra."

I turned my back on the female arrancar and walked away without another word. Honestly, was it so difficult to insert the right amount of bleach into the washer? Sighing, I continued down the hall. What was next? My left eye flashed the image of the list.

**57. Check on the washing servants.**

**58. Ask Szayel for organism analysis on new animals.**

**59. Organize next meeting plans.**

**60. Visit stores to acquire herbs.**

What? Herbs?

Well, 57 could already be dismissed. I was surprised to realize that I had already finished the majority of the list, only those last three remaining. Organism analysis on new animals…going back to Szayelapporo's lab would remind me of Grimmjow's confession to Alexia. How he could be related to her in any way was nearly impossible, though. Unless, according to the storied I'd heard…_No. Get her out of your mind._

Closing my eyes, I drove those thoughts away and proceeded to Szayelapporo Granz's lab. As I neared the entrance, the door opened on its own. Szayel already knew I would arrive…

"Finally, I thought I'd have to keep this pile of documents on my desk forever," Szayel remarked, already holding out a giant pile of paper in his arms. There was a bit of a struggle in passing the papers to me, but we eventually succeeded and I now had a few pounds to carry around with me. Luckily, Kaname Tôsen happened to walk outside of the lab as I exited, and offered to take them for me. We did not talk often, but we could cooperate.

Making the meeting plans was something Aizen usually left to me, although there was rarely any chance in them. Taking the list out of my pocket, I turned it over and read the back. As I thought, there was a small overview of what there was for him to say.

**Train**

**Do not lose sight of incentive**

**Investigate Karakura town- Plans for exploring on September third**

For a moment I wondered what the last one meant, than dismissed it. If Aizen wrote it, he must've had a reason. Now my part came in; what would I add or remove?

Nothing, really. Some things didn't take too much to figure out. Rate of change in Hueco Mundo? Zero. Rate of change in Ulquiorra Schiffer, cuarto espada, since Alexia had appeared in Hueco Mundo? I preferred not to answer that. Next…herbs.

On my way to the stores, I pondered over Aizen's motive behind wanting me to get them. Would a human or Soul Reaper, who had actually drank tea many times before, not be more suitable for the job? As I continued to walk, two female arrancar turned the corner of the hallway and walked in my direction. They seemed to be bickering over something. I only heard small parts of their speech.

"Lord Aizen…"

"…sure about that?"

"…kidding me? I'm one hundred percent sure!"

"But, Loly—"

They both stopped their speech abruptly when they realized that I was there. Loly's eyebrows furrowed and her eyes narrowed; Menoly fidgeted and averted her eyes from my form. "What are you two doing?" I asked.

"W-why do you care?" Loly said bitterly. I took a step towards her and she flinched. "D-don't get any closer!"

"I will warn you only once to not speak to your superiors in that manner."

"Um…Ulquiorra…" Menoly started.

"What do you want?" I answered.

"Does Lord Aizen have anything he wants us to do for him?" Loly asked quickly, overriding whatever Menoly wanted to say. "We can do whatever he asks, so is there something we can do?"

I stayed silent for a moment, pondering over what I should do. It wouldn't hurt to give them the task of getting a few herbs, would it? Although I didn't exactly trust them, I also could not think of a way that they would fail to complete the task.

"Go to the stores and get several herbs for the tea Aizen will have at our meetings," I finally responded. Loly's expression hardened with resolve.

"Let's go, Menoly! We've got herbs to get!"

"R-right!" They both quickly walked away, with me still watching them.

I did not think that getting flavoring for tea required that much confidence.

I found myself with nothing else to do, which I took as the cue to go back to Aizen. I went to the throne room and found it empty. Strange.

I took the opportunity to walk around the room. Usually I did not care about the appeal of where I was in, nor did I have the time to. Now that I fully scoped out the room, I appreciated the architecture. Several cubed pillars were around the perimeter of the room. Taking a step forward, I stumbled and almost fell. Whoever thought that making a cubical one-foot square _hole_ in the ground was a bit stranger than most.

"Ah, there you are," Lord Aizen's voice rang through the room. I immediately turned towards the front of the room, where Aizen was standing, next to his throne. His massive spiritual pressure was impossible to dismiss. "You're done with your tasks already, Ulquiorra?"

"Yes, Lord Aizen."

"Well then, you are dismissed for the day. You've gotten rid of your…issue…now you should enjoy any free time you have. Soon we will be busy destroying the Soul Reapers and such?" Even though he put it as a question, I did not need to answer him. We both knew the response well. "Is there anything you are wondering about which you'd like to ask me?"

"No."

"Are you sure?" Aizen asked for confirmation, confusing me slightly. He of all people knew that I was a person who never second-guessed myself—until recently, anyways. "Anything at all, Ulquiorra?"

Then I realized what Alexia had said earlier, when I had taken her to her room.

_ 'Am I going to see you anytime soon?'_

_ 'I am going to question Aizen about who your warden is going to be, since it used to be me. If it is Grimmjow, I am not sure you will be satisfied with that.'_

_ '…Definitely not.'_

"Lord Aizen, will Grimmjow still be taking custody of that woman?" I asked as naturally as I could, not that it was difficult. Saying it in a way that would not make him suspect that I wanted to spend time with Alexia wasn't too difficult.

But…I didn't necessarily want to, did I?

"Would you like to resume your duty of taking care of her again?" Lord Aizen asked, as if reading my mind.

"She requested that I do so, she seems to be getting exasperated at Grimmjow."

"Do you know why?"

I wondered if I should have told him. After all, it was not a problem and had nothing to do with me…right? "I do not know why." My eyes narrowed a bit as I, again, lied to Lord Aizen. My throat felt dry as I did so, but deep inside I felt something else. Something…positive. But what was positive about keeping things silent from my Lord?

"I'll see what I can do. Why do you want to take care of her, anyways?"

"…All I can say is that she and Grimmjow have their conflicts as of right now."

With that, I left.

Finally, everything was done. No doubt it was a few hours until I would have to sleep again. If it wasn't such a bore, I would stay awake. But ever since I'd left that bush, I wasn't as patient as I was before. Patient meaning that I could stay still for an extremely long amount of time. It was gone, just like that. Maybe a couple of minutes, at the most an hour. Then I would become restless. Maybe it was because of that other thing inside me.

Without realizing it, I'd come to Alexia's chamber. I stared at the door. What was she doing? If my patience was only starting to wear out, than it was worse for her. _Perhaps a bit of company—no_. Two things convinced me not to. One, it shouldn't matter; and two, I could hear another voice in her room. It wasn't hers, leading me to lower my spiritual pressure so I wouldn't be detected.

"I know you can talk, alright!? Why don't you say something?" Grimmjow's exasperated voice was heard. Silence followed afterward. "You won't even look at me. I swear, if you're not going to say anything I'll…"

"…" I took one step towards the door but didn't knock.

"I just need you to react. Is that too much to ask?" Again, silence. "Bitch." The sound of footsteps neared the door and I quickly sonidoed away. Muttered curses resonated down the hall and gradually faced away. As soon as he wasn't heard, I went back. Why?

I am not sure. But when I knocked, the door swung open easily, as if there was no need to even turn the knob of it. Alexia was sitting cross-legged on her bed, nose-deep in a book. Her facial expression seemed almost furious. Whatever she was reading must be intense.

"Woman." She either did not notice me, or did not care. "Woman."

"…"

I sighed and sat down next to her, lowering the book away from her face and looking her in the eyes. As if she was in some sort of trance, she blinked a few times and her pupils shrunk and adjusted to the scene before her.

"Ah, Ulquiorra…" Her voice cracked and she turned her head to clear her throat, then tried again. "Um, hey. Why are you here?" She seemed to notice how my left eyebrow rose slightly. It was rare when someone did take account of the small changes in my expression. "I didn't mean it in a bad way or anything, but…well, I didn't think you'd actually visit me."

"I only wanted to see what was going on, I saw Grimmjow leave your room angrily."

"Ah."

"I will be leaving now."

"…Alright," she sighed, closing her eyes in thought. A few seconds later she fell back without warning. "Well, are you leaving or not?"

My eyes narrowed. "You do not need to remind me."

"You said something like that in the morning, too, didn't you?"

"…And if I did?" I replied coldly, standing up and heading for the door. I craned my head around to look at her from the corner of my eye. She was glaring at me. _Hmph_. "It doesn't matter, and neither do you."

"What's this all of a sudden?" She said. "I thought that you considered me a friend, an ally, whatever the hell you want to refer to it as. Now you're treating me how you used to."

"Well, I am not ill anymore, so I have the right to act how I formerly did. Why should it matter to you? If I deny everything I have said when I was bedridden, you should not care."

"…But I do care."

"You should learn not to."

"It's too late to turn back now," she countered, her tone becoming harsher. "Whether I believe you or not, are you going to act like this?"

"Have you forgotten that I cannot let my feelings slip? Do you want my other persona to completely take over my body so that you'll never have to see me again?" My tone of voice was slightly colder. Turning my whole body around, I saw the horrified look on her face and a sick feeling settled in my stomach and a pang in my chest. What is this? Darkness gathered at the corner of my eyes and I desperately fought the other person trying to take me over.

**'Shouldn't have said that~'**

_Get away from me._

** 'You know you can't hide from me forever.'**

_Since when am I hiding? All I am saying is that—_

The velvety voice chuckled.** 'I swear, you're such a joke.'**

_What?_

** 'I'm letting you go this time, but if you do this to her too much I'm gonna have to do something about it.' **Without another word, the pressured feeling in my head subsided.

"Ulquiorra? Are you okay?" Her voice was right next to me, startling me. Her eyes shone in worry. "You…might want to go now, I don't want to make you any more emotional. I wasn't thinking, I'm sorry."

"I should apologize," I replied, putting a hand on her head. We were almost the same height, she was just an inch or two shorter than I. "I will see you tomorrow." My touch seemed to relax her, closing her eyes and leaning into my hand.

She sighed. "Yeah. Did Aizen say anything about you being my warden?"

"No, not yet. He will think of it." I retreated my hand and stepped out of the room.

"Bye, Ulqui-cielago," she murmured, softly closing the door and separating us. Good, I needed to have space between us. I wanted to go somewhere where I'd be alone, without disturbances.

Minutes later, I was on the roof of Las Noches. It felt better not having to look at the artificial sky, the moon was much more appealing. Not to mention, real. If I hadn't ventured out of that pit, I wouldn't have met Aizen. If I hadn't met Aizen, I wouldn't be the person I am now. If I hadn't been forced to come here, I wouldn't have met all the people I knew. If I wasn't so loyal to him, I wouldn't have met Alexia.

I also wouldn't have to deal with this person inside my head.

A small hollow no bigger than my hand scuttled up to me, its beady eyes staring at me. "What are you doing here?" It is not like it would answer, though. The animal scuttled away. I continued to stare at the moon. If I were to try and fly away, would I ever be able to reach that moon? At times I thought that maybe the sky I was looking at right now was just another dome. What would be beyond it? Whenever I saw that moon I was reminded of my past. The moon was following me like a shadow, constantly making me remember that it was there, along with everything that had happened in my life, if that was even the correct term to call it. I was already dead. Thinking that, I was my shadow on my right. From this perspective, my hollow mask was barely visible in my outline. I looked…human.

Foolish_._

_Although_, I thought as I left and retreated to my bedroom, _maybe it would not be so bad to experience having a human life again. It it was even possible. Perhaps…_

Perhaps I'd be able to know what I was experiencing. The pang in my chest when I'd said those things to her. The sickening feeling in my stomach. My hand on her head, and all the things I'd done before that. I wanted to make them go away, but most of all, I didn't want her to be hurt by them. Or _him_.

Alexia: F-finally…x.x

Me: Oh. My. God. It's a success!

Ulquiorra: When you two said that you would make another cake, I did not imagine that the new cake would be about four times as large as the original one T_T'

Grimmjow: *-,*

Alexia and I: Oh, hell no T_T (Locks Grimmjow in closet)

Me: Well, the reason we made the cake exceptionally bigger this time is because of something else that happened this week ^_^ I reached my next benchmark of reviews! It's at fifty-seven! So…everyone who reviewed this time around gets a piece of this cake :D

Grimmjow: (Speaking in a muffled tone) It's poisoned! Don't eat it, or you're gonna—

Alexia: SHUT UP! IF IT WAS POISONED YOU'D BE DEAD RIGHT NOW!

Grimmjow: *Mumbles*…Bet you'd like that…

Me: Anyways, I'd like to thank **shadowoftheblackdeat** (you're just like a shadow…always behind me O.O), **Phantom-Cosplayer, Xplosion, NameWithNoMeaning, Silver-Moon-Light94, Nyx787, Dark shadows 64, rebecca27, Cecilia Worthy **and those three guests for giving me your thoughts and suggestions!

Alexia: Enjoy the cake, everyone!

Gin: So, wha's da cake's flavor?

Me: Whatever you want it to be…^_^

Ulquiorra: Partially plain, chocolate, strawberry, coffee, banana…

Alexia: Take your pick! And don't forget to tell us how it tastes (aka…please review! Be a critic and tell me how I portrayed Ulqui-cielago -.-)


	16. Didn't see it coming

Me: Ermahgerd!

Alexia: What the fuck?

Me: I said…ermahgerd T_T It's not fun when I say it twice, though.

Alexia: You and your damn memes.

Grimmjow: This guy's face looks weird (looking at forever alone memes) Don't tell me all humans look like this…

Ulquiorra: Look, there is one with me in i—

nekoespada. deviant art art/ Bleach-meme-325656566 [No spaces or capital letters]

All: O.O

Ulquiorra: That is NOT my father…

Grimmjow: (ROFLHAO) He looks just like you! Ahahahahaha!

Ulquiorra: T_T* (Charges cero)

Me: (Glares at Ulquiorra)

Ulquiorra: (Sighs) I will kill him next time.

Alexia: Hey, Grimmjow, I found one with you and Ulquiorra ^_^

Ulquiorra: T_T Let me see.

Grimmjow: (Peers over Ulquiorra's shoulder)

sun and moon productions. tumblr image/ 25505293649 [Again T_T no spaces or capitals, people]

Both: x.x

Alexia: xD They actually fell for it!

Me: :D Priceless.

Alexia: I learned from the best ^_^ (Fistbump)

Me: Now, you guys can read the next chapter while Alexia and I revive the guys :3

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

**AUGUST 31ST**

So. Fucking. Bored.

Don't even try to disagree with me. Even I would get tired of drawing and sleeping and eating and ignoring Jeagerjaques, which was exactly what I'd been doing these past four days. The first day had been okay, what with me just barely starting to get used to my boring schedule. That and the fact that Ulquiorra had been there a portion of the time. Now it was just me.

Well, technically Grimmjow was there too, but I'd be damned if I gave in that easily to his stupid remarks and pleads. I might as well have been deaf and mute to him. I wasn't planning to ask him for clarification on the whole 'Hey, just wanted to let you know that you're my sister and I've known this whole time!' thing, either. As much as I hated to admit it, I knew I'd acted incredibly rash and thoughtless when he'd first confessed to me. That ultimately led me to not having the information I was seeking. At first I'd thought that he'd tell me on his own time, but he apparently didn't have that in his plans. He wanted me to talk first. What I figured was, he knew I wanted to know the details of his confession but also knew I was too stubborn to ask him, and was therefore taking advantage of that.

My pride wasn't that fragile, either. It would take more effort than what he was currently putting in to make me succumb to him.

Unfortunately for me, it seemed like he knew that too. He apparently also happened to know what irked me the most. Such as: ripping up two of my watercolor paintings. That's what he'd done the first day. Oh, you'd never be able to understand how much I wanted to kill him. Each of those paintings had taken several hours to complete, compared to the few seconds it took him to rip them into little pieces…

Then, the second day, he'd been on the verge of tearing another one of my paintings but stopped when he saw what exactly I'd painted. It was him. Although I refused to look at his face, I knew he was itching to ask me the question, "Why?" Of course, the answer became pretty obvious when I went and added a mustache, beard, unibrow, top hat and a spectacle onto his portrait. I really like anger management.

Yesterday he'd finally resorted to using words, although they weren't as effective as I thought he'd make them. Mostly, he'd say things about how I was a bitch, and how it didn't take much to turn around and look at him. He'd also said something like this: "If you don't look at me I'll make you turn around and I'll do more than just look at you." Something like that—which made me more pissed off at him than ever. The nerve this bastard had…and now that we both knew our connection to each other, he planned to rub it in or something? Wasn't that my job?

Then I awoke this morning to find Feka napping on my face. At first I'd thought it was Grimmjow's doing—until I remembered that Feka had a lot of strange sleeping habits; one was that she found the most unlikely places to sleep. Feka had been acting hostile towards Grimmjow, as if she knew everything that was going on. Maybe she did.

"Morning, Feka," I mumbled, gently pulling her off me. She cuddled up next to me instead. Our thoughts were mutual: _let's just go back to sleep._

As if. Right on cue, I heard the door open and footsteps that got louder. Feka and I looked at each other for about a second before I pulled the covers over my head.

"Aizen's having a meeting today and he wants you to come with me," Grimmjow said. His voice sounded drained, as if he'd spent a sleepless night in his room and had to run ten miles to get to my room. "Says it's important for you to be there or something. Hey."

I mentally rolled my eyes. So, he was trying to get me to talk? Nice try.

"Are you even awake?" Once again, I remained silent. "Get up, we have to leave."

I heard him give an exasperated sigh and storm into the bathroom, slamming the door behind. Letting out my breath, which I'd subconsciously been holding the whole time, I sat up and got out of bed, hurriedly changing into a pair of skinny jeans and a long sleeved white undershirt, a black and crimson striped t-shirt on top of it. Either Grimmjow knew I was up but didn't want to interact with me yet, or he was just oblivious to the sound of the door opening and closing audibly as I exited.

"Meeting room, if you would please," I told the compass, letting my accent slip by. I was starting to like having it again. A nostalgic feeling rose in me when I used it. Turning around, I beckoned for Feka to follow. "Let's go, shall we?"

As we neared the entrance to the meeting hall, I saw Szayel in the distance, just making his entrance. He saw me out of the corner of his eye and slowed down so I could catch up to him. "Feka, hurry up!" I complained, then resorted to carrying her in my arms as I jogged over to Szayel. "Sorry for making you wait, Szayel."

"Don't worry, it wasn't that much of a wait," he dismissed me, beckoning me inside and following suit after I'd entered. Everyone in the room immediately acknowledged our presences.

"It's been quite some time since we've seen each other, Alexia," Aizen said, his calm yet commanding voice silencing the rest of the voices in the room. I scratched the back of my head nervously, all of my I-can-outsmart-you-and-I-don't-care-what-becomes-of-me resolve disappearing by the second. "Sit down, if you would."

I glanced at Szayel, who did the same, and reluctantly went over to a chair only to be interrupted by Aizen. "Sit over here, Alexia." He waved his hand towards the empty seat to his right. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"But, that's where Ulquiorra sits, right?" I reminded him. "I'll just sit here…" That's when I noticed that Ulquiorra was already seated, and realized that they'd just pulled up another chair. My face flushed in embarrassment and hung my head low as I hurriedly got out of the seat I was in and nearly ran to the one Aizen was offering to me. _Oh shit, is Ulquiorra offended that I didn't notice him before? I hope he's not. He can't be. He isn't._

**'Yeah, you just keep thinking that.'**

_Shut up!_

Just after I sat down, Grimmjow made his entrance, slamming in his chair across from me.

"Now that that is resolved, let us start," Aizen took everyone's attention off of me. For once, I was thankful. "As you all know, tomorrow is the start of a new month. On September third, Ulquiorra is going to go to the World of the Living to seek out Ichigo Kurosaki."

_N-no way_, I thought in disbelief. _Already? How long have I been here…three, four weeks. Did time really go by that quickly?_

"One other espada will go along with him," Aizen continued. "Have you chosen who you'd like to accompany you, Ulquiorra?"

"…Yammy Llargo," Ulquiorra replied monotonously after a few seconds of thought; something told me that he'd chosen barely at this moment. Wen I glanced over at him I saw that his eyes were closed, as if it cost him a great deal of trouble to speak his thoughts.

"What? That's a bit strange of you, Quarto," Barragan noted. "Do you not qualify anyone who is your subordinate as 'trash'?"

"It was Lord Aizen's decision to have someone come with me, therefore I would choose whether I wanted to or not," Ulquiorra replied.

I heard Grimmjow snicker (I was still not going to look at him) and say, "Yeah, but…why Yammy? Of all people—"

"The fuck is that supposed to mean, Grimmjow!?" Yammy yelled, getting out of his chair. "' Of all people'?!"

"That's what I said," Grimmjow said. His tone of voice made it seem like he was trying to suppress a laugh. "Or is your stupid blocking your ears?"

"WHAT!?"

"Grimmjow, Yammy," Aizen said calmly, yet anyone could feel the hostility in those two words. Yammy resisted the urge to retort and sat down reluctantly. "Grimmjow, you seem to be enjoying yourself this morning."

"Tch."

"Well, does anyone have anything to say about this mission?" Aizen asked. I scanned the table. Stark was asleep, Barragan looked like he was thinking of a way to kill Aizen, Halibel shook her head silently, Ulquiorra said a soft "No, Lord Aizen", Nnoitora grinned at me when he saw me staring (I responded by raising an eyebrow at him), I skipped Grimmjow; Zommari…uh…

Szayel was smiling as if he knew what I was about to do, Aaroniero was impossible to tell, since he technically had two different personalities, and Yammy was still pissed. I internally smiled as I cleared my throat. Now everyone's attention was on me. I got up abruptly and made a dramatic gesture of pointing at Aizen triumphantly.

"Do you have something to say, Alexia?" Aizen asked.

"I'm going with them," I declared, looking him straight in the eyes, still pointing at him. "And I'm not going to hear any arguments from you."

An awkward silence settled in the room. It wasn't exactly the reaction I'd expected. Finally, Aizen spoke again. "I wouldn't have called you to this meeting if there wasn't anything concerning you."

"…"

** 'Well, that was the best fail I've seen in a long time.'**

"So, I _am_ going with them?" I asked for confirmation, getting back into my seat as everyone watched. _Fail. Epic fail._

"If you wish to. You've made it fairly obvious," Aizen remarked with an outer smile and inner smirk. "Just try not to get in their way and you'll live."

My spirits lifted. Finally, I'd be able to see something other than white and black, trees of quartz and not-really-alive animals. "Count me in."

"I have one other thing to show you all before you are adjourned," Aizen said. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. He gazed at me with a knowing smile on his face, which made me flinch on the inside. I had a premonition, and it wasn't a good kind.

Someone entered the room suddenly. The clack of high heels were heard as the person neared the table. My eyes widened when the form of the person was registered into my mind. "Sun-sun…?" Her eyes were narrowed as she glared at Aizen.

"Yes, Lord Aizen?" She asked cautiously, as if she was trying not to lash out at him. "Why have you called me here?"

"Come here, Sun-sun," Aizen commanded, getting out of his chair. She seemed to be frozen where she stood. "Is there something you're afraid of?"

"No…"

"Sun-sun, do as he says." Sun-sun glanced at Halibel. She slowly walked over to Aizen and faced him, holding her head high.

"Do you know why I have called you here?" Aizen asked.

"I do not, Lord Aizen."

"Tell me, what do you think of my rule over Las Noches?"

"What?" Sun-sun said in mock disbelief. "Why do you ask me?"

"Please do try not to answer my question with another one."

"…It's fine, I suppose," she answered hesitantly. "Is that all you have—!" In less than a second, Aizen's hand had a choke hold on Sun-sun's neck. I sprang out of my seat, hearing a few others also get up.

"Let her go! What the hell do you think you're doing!?" I exclaimed, hastily trying to get Aizen's hand off of her. That only resulted in him using his other arm to push me back, as easily as it was to break a twig, and resulted in me flying some twenty feet back and crashing onto the ground. "…ugh…"

"Alexia!" I heard Grimmjow yell, saw his feet approaching me and I struggled to get up again. No, I wouldn't permit him to achieve anything through weakness. My pride wouldn't allow it. A sharp pain shot through my shoulder as I applied pressure on my left arm. Damn.

For a moment I almost thought that maybe, just maybe, Ulquiorra would appear and help me instead. As if. Not in front of all these people. Especially not his Lord Aizen. I gritted my teeth as I screwed my eyes shut and Grimmjow wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me to my feet.

"Let go of me," I hissed, prying myself out of his grasp and starting for Sun-sun and Aizen again. This time, I was nearly punched in the stomach as Ulquiorra's arm shot out just when I was about three feet away from them. "Ulquiorra, please get out of the wa—"

"Whatever Lord Aizen is doing, he has a reason for it. Do not interfere, trash," he said emotionlessly. Every word was like a stab to my chest. I grabbed his arm and tried to make him face me, to see if what he was saying was genuine, but in one swift movement he had both of my arms pinned behind my back. No matter what I did, I couldn't free myself from his grasp. The pain from tugging on my left arm was enough to make tears spring to my eyes, biting back a yell.

"'I don't see anything special in Aizen.' That's what you said, is it not?" Aizen murmured into Sun-sun's ear, who was struggling to get air. "'There's just something about him.' Very arrogant for a small weakling like you, isn't it? You should ponder over what you say, Cyan Sun-sun."

"…Y-you…," she managed to choke out, barely. My own struggle increased but I wasn't getting anywhere.

"I wonder what your mistress has to say about this," he yanked Sun-sun over to Halibel, who was clearly shocked. "My powers are inferior; that is what she theorizes. Tell me, what should we do to correct such thoughts?"

Halibel looked sorrowfully at Sun-sun, writing in his grasp. She seemed to know all too well that she was going to have to make a choice. A sacrifice.

"…I take all responsibility for Sun-sun's thoughts, and Sun-sun will accept whatever punishment you wish to bestow on her," Halibel finally answered. She refused to meet Sun-sun's teary eyes.

"M-mistress Hali…" Aizen finally let her go and she collapsed onto the floor, hacking for air. Ulquiorra also let go of me and the pain in my arms subsided instantly. I turned my head and sent him a glare, seeing his eyes widen noticeably. I snapped my head forward and aided Sun-sun, putting her head in my lap and massaging her upper neck with my right hand; bruises were already forming on her.

"You…," I hissed, glaring at Aizen. "Why the hell did you do that!? If you think you can just go and hurt whoever you want—"

"To put it quite frankly, I can," Aizen countered instantly. "If I recall, you've been put in your place quite a few times today. Would you like it to happen again, permanently? I'm sure no one would notice that you're dead."

Gritting my teeth, all I could do was glare at him. All at once I felt his reiastu crushing me again. Putting up a fight only made it worse.

"Alexia, it is probably for the best that you think of consequences before you act," Aizen advised cunningly. Damn bastard. His spiritual pressure suddenly concentrated on my left shoulder and I cried out as the pain there intensified. "Hopefully you understand, don't you?"

"H-how?" I croaked out, squinting my eyes in an attempt to lessen the blurriness in everything around me. "How did you…know?"

"That's for me to know and you to never find out."

"Ahhhh!" I heard something crack and I submitted to the pain, tears flowing down my cheeks. It was only something she'd said. Why was he going so far? The pain throbbed even more as his spiritual pressure went away and all I felt was my shoulder. Sparing a glance at it, I saw that the shoulder blade was bent in a strange angle, making me sick at the sight of it. I refused to vomit, though.

"This meeting is adjourned," Aizen concluded as if none of this had just happened. "Grimmjow, take Alexia back to her room. Szayel, see if you can get something for her condition."

"…," I remained silent, eyes screwed shut, as Grimmjow picked me up tenderly and carried me bridal style out of the room. The last thing I saw before he walked out of the room and shut the door behind him was Ulquiorra, staring at me intently; but there was something else in his eyes that I couldn't quite read.

"Are you okay?" Grimmjow asked softly. I didn't answer him. "Hey, I'm asking you something."

"…"

"Or I could just _not_ take you to Szayel so that he can do something about your shoul—"

"Does it _look_ like I'm okay?" I spat at him, tears welling up in my eyes again when I moved my torso and, therefore, shoulder. So much for pride. Now I sounded like a whiny bitch. "Of course I'm not okay. Don't ask stupid questions."

Grimmjow, surprisingly, stayed silent and continued to go to the lab. Szayel let us in immediately and put me up on the medical table again, the same one he'd fixed my ankle on. Nobody wanted to talk. He gave me another one of Orihime's medications (it reminded me of her the most) and I found it more sickening to watch as my shoulder joints popped back into place and all traces of internal hemorrhage disappeared.

"Alexia, I'd like to show you something," Szayel said solemnly. "Grimmjow, you stay here."

"Why?"

"It's something that was made for Alexia. I'm sure she wouldn't like you coming with her. Have you already explained why you two are related?"

"…"

Szayel sighed. "You might want to consider telling her. Alexia, this way," he beckoned. I cautiously got off of the table and followed him down an aisle stacked high with boxes of things I wouldn't want to find out about. I was convinced of that once I saw a box labeled 'Adjuchas–eyes and teeth'. Why Szayel would need them, I wasn't sure.

"Um, what did you want to show me?" I asked. Szayel turned and looked me in the eye intently, so intently that I instinctively backed off. His stare looked hostile. Was his aspect of death getting the better of him?

"First of all, you forgot her," he said.

"What?"

He lifted up something—that something being Feka. I sweat dropped.

** 'Really? You say you love cats, but you can't even keep track of ****_one_****?'**

_ I never said I was good at taking care of them…_

**'If that's the case you should've left it here and come to visit.'**

_But I'm too lazy to come here every single day to come and see her._

** 'Christ, you're something else.'**

_No, I'm just lazy. There's a difference._

"Sorry about that, Szayel," I took her in my arms and heard her mewl discontentedly. "And you too, Feka. Is that really the only reason you took me over here, away from him?"

"What happened with Sun-sun?"

I gulped. "You saw it with your own eyes. Aizen very nearly killed her, and me as well."

"That's not what I meant. What did she do that drove Aizen to do that, and how did you have a part in it?" he elaborated.

"Well…," I started, not sure how to explain in a way that wouldn't make the situation look like we deserved it. "It was right after Grimmjow confessed…I went to the weapons room and I met Halibel and her fracciòn. She told Sun-sun to train with me instead and I got to know her better, physically and socially."

"And then?" Szayel prodded.

"When we were talking, she said something about how I'm a quick learner, but not very effective. Then she said that maybe I could contribute in smaller tasks, and then…"

"What?"

"She said that the only reason she was her in the first place was because Halibel was here," I finished. "Aizen already said the rest at the meeting."

"I see," Szayel accepted what I said immediately. "And you didn't take into account the fact that Aizen can hear you?" My eyes widened and Szayel noticed it, too. "What did you think that watch was?"

My eyes snapped over to look at the watch on my wrist—or not. It wasn't there anymore. "What…where did I—"

"I removed it from your wrist when I was checking your pulse; I'm not sure why you didn't notice, though."

I felt betrayed. Gin…did he know there was a bug in the watch? I already knew his true intentions; and I realized that he also went to any measure in order to accomplish his own goals. Even if it hurt other people in the way. If this was an order from Aizen, then it was easy to comprehend: Gin didn't want to seem suspicious. But if he was doing this because it was a step to killing Aizen—which would eventually fail with terrible consequences—I didn't understand how I played a part in his plans. I'd only appeared a month ago, whereas he'd been planning to kill Aizen ever since he was a child in the Rukongai.

"I'm guessing it's waterproof too?" I asked.

"Why do you ask?"

"I…dropped it in water a few times," I lied. I wasn't about to say 'Oh, Grimmjow threw me into a hot spring when I was still wearing it.' That would raise too many questions that I didn't want to answer. "Actually, the answer's pretty obvious since it still recorded what Sun-sun and I were saying. Guess this means that Aizen's been listening to my life for the past week; that…is pretty fucked up."

"I'm sure there's a lot of things on your mind," he agreed.

"I've made it pretty obvious," I said. "I'm not sure I want to know the answers to some of the questions I have, anyways."

We decided to stop hiding. As soon as we started to leave, we both noticed that someone else was here, someone besides Grimmjow—and Feka. I wasn't forgetting her this time, carrying her in my arms. I heard two voices conversing and immediately recognized one as Grimmjow. With the very little I could hear from the other person, I could only conclude that it was a female.

"You never told me before…"

"Yeah, well, now you know," I heard Grimmjow reply. What he said only made me more confused. Who did he tell, and what did they know? "Aizen's probably going to erase your memory now that I've told you."

"What about you?"

"Dunno. Whatever happens, happens."

"…Goodbye, Grimmjow."

"Yeah. See if you can remember me the next time we meet."

Szayel poked my shoulder tentatively and I realized that I'd nearly been visible to Grimmjow and the mystery girl. After a few moments of silence (so as to not seem too suspicious), Szayel gave me the okay and I walked into view.

"…Finally, you're back," Grimmjow remarked. I ignored him and sat on the opposite side of the couch he was sitting on, as far away from him as possible. "Hey, don't be like that."

"…" Out of the corner of my eye, I somehow managed to pass off a glare. _And there goes the 'I'm not going to look at him' plan._ "Are you going to tell me?"

"What?" he asked skeptically. A dead giveaway.

"You know what I'm talking about. Are you planning to tell me or not?"

"…"

"In that case, I'm leaving," I said matter-of-factly. Getting up from the couch and beckoning Feka to my side after she hissed and rattled her tail at Grimmjow, I shoved my hands in the pockets of my jeans and dug for the compass. _It was right here, where the fuck is it?_ I resisted the urge to punch something when I saw Grimmjow twirling it around his fingers, a triumphant smirk on his face. "Give me the compass."

"Did you say please?"

"Fuck you!" I exclaimed, stomping over to him and trying to snatch it out of his hands. It was like a difficult game of whack-a-mole; I aimed and made a wild grab for it but he always managed to evade my hands. "Could you—just—agh! Fine, I don't need that stupid compass to get to my room!"

He laughed so much I could see tears forming at the corners of his eyes. That just fueled my anger. "Okay, whatever you say, Sis."

That was the last straw. For some reason, nicknaming me in that way made my anger erupt like Mount Vesuvius. I resisted the urge to say everything I'd been holding in these past few days and instead ran away. "Hey, Alexia!" I ignored him and kept going, forgetting about the countless cables spread across the floor and accidentally unplugging some of them from…wherever they were from. The lights in the area I was in went out instantly and I heard something slowly opening.

"Shit," I cursed, backing up to the first thing I could find. Fortunately if was a wall and not some live creature. _Calm. Stay calm. Wait…what was that?_ I heard soft steps; who's or what's, I couldn't tell. My heart started to beat faster. I opened my mouth to say something but no words would come out. _Tmp. Tmp. Tmp._ Were they feet of an arrancar, or some sort of animal?

Then, in the shadows about ten feet away, I saw it. More like I saw the feline eyes. For a moment I thought it was just Feka; then it emerged fully and I saw its actual size. It held extremely close resemblance to Grimmjow's adjuchas form, with the exception that this wasn't Grimmjow. The animalistic look in this creature's eyes reminded me of Grimmjow's, but there was something else in Grimmjow's eyes that this animal didn't have. Like it was a robot or something. A robot that was now growling at me and slowly stalking forward as I stared in horror, the perfect prey.

_What do I do? _Even if I tried to run away, it would only take a few seconds for the panther to lunge at me and then kill me. "Alexia?" A voice to my left suddenly said, making me jump. That was all it took for the panther to give a final growl before sprinting towards me. I thought that some sort of plan would suddenly click in my mind and I'd be able to get out of this shit before the animal got close enough to rip my head off, but unfortunately the only thought I had was: _Oh shit, I'm going to die._

Apparently I didn't, though, when I saw a body shielding me, a blinding light in front of that person. "Go," the person said. Szayel? Was he talking to me? "Back into your cage, now."

Okay, he definitely wasn't talking to me.

With the bright light in the way I could barely see anything in front of me, but I saw the vague form of the panther reluctantly going back into the large display case Szayel had been holding it in. After a few seconds, Szayel sighed tiredly and the light gradually faded, leaving me in the dark again. Szayel turned to me. "I thought I told you to be careful."

"I'm sorry," I suddenly apologized, hugging him tightly.

"What's this all of a sudden?"

"I thought I was going to die…"

"Well, technically, you were," Szayel informed. "If I hadn't passed by in the past few moments beforehand, your head would probably in his digestive system right now."

"…Thanks for that tidbit of info."

"What has happened here?" a new voice suddenly interrupted. Ulquiorra was standing off to the side, watching our actions. "Szayel, what is the meaning of all this?"

"Alexia was a few seconds away from being eaten by a panther, cut her some slack," Szayel explained. "Don't worry so much, Ulquiorra."

"I was not worried about that woman," he disagreed. "I was merely making sure that you are aware of your carelessness; if there are dangerous specimens in this room, you should take extra measures to keep them in their cages."

"It's okay, Ulquiorra," I countered. A small amount of anger from what he'd done at Aizen's meeting surfaced. "I was being the careless one, I didn't watch where I went and unplugged some of the cables. If you're going to blame someone, blame me."

"…You have been doing that a lot lately," Ulquiorra remarked, turning around and starting to leave.

"Doing what?" I asked.

"Being careless."

I was silenced as Ulquiorra left. It was only a few seconds later that I came back to reality, when Szayel waved his hand in front of my face. "Alexia, are you alright?" he asked.

"…"

"Alexia?"

"How dare he think that?!" I erupted angrily. "I mean, I know I said I was careless but that didn't mean he was supposed to rub it in! He was supposed to say something like 'Do not worry about it' or 'It is not always your fault', but nooo, he does the opposite!"

"Well…you did tell him to blame you…," Szayel said with a nervous smile, my aura making him slowly move away from me.

"That's not the point!"

"WOULD YOU JUST SHUT UP!?" Grimmjow yelled from where he was, making both Szayel and I jump. That knocked me out of my rage like a magic spell.

"…Sorry," I scratched the back of my head and shrugged, laughing nervously. I slowly stopped as I thought of Ulquiorra.

Obviously, he was back to how he used to be; I wasn't sure if he knew it, but that had come with a few sacrifices, at least when it came to me.

**'That sounded extremely selfish.'**

_ Shut up, I didn't mean it to sound like that. You miss his slightly emotional side, too, don't you._

** '…'**

_Thought so._

But like I'd said a few days ago, I couldn't just ask him to show his emotions more once in a while. That was like asking for his other person to show up, which I was sure I didn't want. Just the thought of it made me shudder. Whatever his other side was going to do to me the first time he showed up was certain to happen if he appeared a second time. If only there was a way to defeat that other person so he wouldn't appear. Then again…it was because of that person that Ulquiorra had any emotions at all. Would it really be alright to kill him? And what would happen to Ulquiorra if we did succeed in killing the other person? According to Grimmjow, Ulquiorra had to fight that person when he was in the state of becoming an arrancar. But Ulquiorra was already an arrancar. Would there be some negative effect because of that?

"You really are in deep thought," Szayel's voice ripped through my thoughts, but not completely. "I've been calling you and calling you but you didn't answer, staring off into space."

"I was thinking…about Ulquiorra's other half," I admitted, noticing how Szayel's eyebrows furrowed a little and his eyes narrowed. "Szayel, what was your other half like, the one you battled when you became an arrancar?"

"The most stupid imbecile I had ever met in my past and present life combined," Szayel immediately answered, making me sweat drop. "Honestly, he thought that science was not a necessary element of everyday life. That and he kept on saying things like 'The world will never end' and 'Who needs science when you have imagination?'. The nerve that puny bastard…ah. I've said too much, haven't I?"

"Um, no…it's okay, really," I assured him. "Is there a way to get rid of your other half if you never managed to fully defeat it the first time? Or does something happen?"

"I'm not certain, the only person I know who has that condition is Ulquiorra, and I can't simply use him for a test subject with him being the fourth and all. But…it has been done once before." My eyes widened.

"H-how?"

"I…met another scientist at a hollow village not far from here. They were the closest thing to a civilized herd of hollows I'd ever encountered before Aizen. Their leader was an arrancar, and he told me of how he himself had never been able to get rid of his inner half.

"Right before my eyes, he willed himself to transform into his other half. I asked how he did so."

"What did he say?" I asked, enthralled.

"I don't remember," Szayel said, sending my heart into the dark pits of hell. Wait, I was already there. "And it didn't help that it was a long time ago that I met him, let alone that Aizen ordered us to obliterate the town some thirty years ago."

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" I exclaimed. "Why did Aizen have to kill him off?!" I felt so mad that I wanted to scream my voice out until I couldn't speak for a week. So mad that I wanted to kill the first thing that my hands touched. So mad that I wanted to…

Laugh?

Which was exactly what I did. "Alexia, what in Hueco Mundo has gotten into you?" Szayel wondered, looking at me like I was crazy. I most definitely was. I tried to stop laughing so I could explain—even though there really wasn't a reason—but it only resulted in me laughing even more. Supporting myself on the wall behind me, I slid down and continued to laugh out loud.

"All I hear is a fucking girl laughing her ass off and I see this, I can't even tell if she's laughing or crying anymore!" Grimmjow emerged and also stared at me. I only laughed even harder, of possible.

"Sh—shut up—Grimm—Grimmjow!" I managed to choke out between laughs. I started to gasp. "I—can't fucking—breathe!" Grimmjow gave up and went back to where he was previously. I was surprised that Szayel remained at my side as I eventually calmed down. "Sorry, you must've been thinking that I was suddenly possessed."

"Don't worry about it," he assured.

"Anyways, I actually realized something," I said, smiling at him brightly. He raised an eyebrow in question. "I don't care about that guy who died."

"What?"

"Szayel, I bet you've been trying to figure this out yourself for some time now, haven't you? That guy wouldn't have just told you out of the blue if you hadn't asked first; plus…"

"Plus?" Szayel prodded, starting to lose his patience.

"No matter what, I know that you'll come up with something." I knew it sounded a bit pressuring, but it was straight from the heart. I had total trust in this pink-haired scientist whose aspect of death was madness. Nothing to worry about. "So, I have a request. Do you think you could make something that would physically make Ulquiorra's half separate from him?"

"You mean, splitting his soul?" His eyes were wide in surprise. Bet he wasn't expecting that.

"If that's what you'd call it, yeah. Somehow we need to get that entity out of him for good, and I thought that manifesting it was the best way to do that. Maybe if you made a marioneta for it we could force its soul into it and seal him inside…for eternity, maybe?"

"…"

"Okay, that's a little extensive, but still," I insisted. "And I'll help you in any way I can."

I thought I might've scared him a little, because he had this look or bewilderment, but that soon turning into his knowing smile. "I'll do what I can. Thank you for believing in me."

"You're always welcome," I returned. "If it's you, something will come up and we'll be able to—"

"Alexia, I want to warn you."

"…?"

"Are you still determined to go through with this, regardless of the solution I come up with?"

My eyebrows furrowed at his question and I immediately put a hand on my forehead to smooth it out._ I have to stop doing that._ But he had a point; I never thought about the fact that he might come up with something I didn't like. Something that could hurt Ulquiorra, or worse…I shook my head to try and clear my thoughts. It's not like I wanted him to continue like he was, either. I recalled what he'd said the first day I'd started to take care of him.

'What I am envious of is your ability to display your emotions so freely.'

I want him to stop feeling envious, and afraid of that other person.

"I'm sure of it," I finally responded. My answer seemed to surprise Szayel. "I saw his way of thinking a few times. He deserves freedom from that thing."

"One other thing, Alexia."

"Yeah?"

"You do realize the other person is part of Ulquiorra? We can't simply just kill him, or we'll be killing Ulquiorra as well."

"…Yeah. Looks like getting rid of that person is out of the question." My head hurt from thinking about this so much. I never thought about all of the details in going through with my too-simple plan. We had about a month or so. I hoped we could do something by then. "I'll see you later, Szayel."

"You will," he assured, giving me a sense of déjà vu. "Here." He handed me the compass I had gotten so angry over, me gaping at him. "And one final thing. When I'd said that Grimmjow was in love with you, I never said what kind of love it was, neither did I say that you had to return his love."

I couldn't believe this. He had to be kidding. I smirked at him and he only smiled brightly. Shaking my head in disapproval whilst still grinning, I turned my back on him and left, beckoning Feka to my side.

Bastard.

**SEPTEMBER THIRD, PART 1**

"Remind me why this bitch is here?"

"Because I wanted to, Yammy. Nothing's gonna happen if you keep on complaining about it, either."

"…You two…"

"You see, even Ulquiorra doesn't want you here!"

"All he said was, 'You two.' That doesn't, in any way possible, say that he doesn't want me here!"

"Both of you will not go if you continue to bicker."

"…"

"…"

We were just outside of Las Noches; it was the first time I'd been outside of the dome, which felt…awesome. Like Aizen couldn't kick our asses out here. Of course, that was completely false, but it was nice to imagine.

"So, what are we supposed to do if someone recognizes the girl?" Yammy asked Ulquiorra, a cross-popping vein appearing above my head.

"The girl has a name," I hissed.

"I presume most of the humans there will be nothing but trash incapable of recognizing her; regardless, if someone does recognize her we will kill them," concluded Ulquiorra. I looked at him in horror. "We do not want anyone to report her to authorities. Any Soul Reapers could be in the area and immediately seek out her spiritual energy."

"But I'm just a human with no powers, how can they seek out my spiritual pressure?" I asked.

"You have never once thought of it?" Ulquiorra responded. "The reason you did not die instantly after arriving in Hueco Mundo is because you have some amount of spiritual pressure in you." True, I'd never given a second thought to it. "The only question is why, but you are not a pressing matter." Ouch. Usually he was ice-cold; now it was more like absolute-zero cold.

"So, who are we lookin' for again? Who is this Ichigo guy?"

"I do not know myself, but Aizen gave us two key points: orange hair and a black bankai. He also has a high spiritual pressure which he makes no effort to hide. At the present, there are only about three people in the World of the Living whom have potential power, the other two being Kisuke Urahara and Yoruichi Shihoin."

"Well, the bastard just made it a lot easier," Yammy said. "Who the fuck would die their hair orange?"

I rolled my eyes. Like he knew. "And I guess being seven and a half feet tall is perfectly normal."

"What did you say?" He snapped his head toward me. "Aizen isn't the only one you should be scared of!"

"I'm not scared of Aizen!" I countered. At this, I saw Ulquiorra glance at me.

"Stop being annoying, both of you," Ulquiorra scolded us. Although we stared daggers at each other, Yammy and I stayed silent. Soon after, we got the okay from Aizen to open a garganta. I watched in awe as the atmosphere in front of me seemed to tear apart, revealing a black abyss beyond. Yammy muttered a few things I couldn't make out as he entered. It was just Ulquiorra and I now.

"You go first," Ulquiorra demanded. I nodded wordlessly and watched my step as I went in. Small particles of my spiritual pressure started building a small and fragile path around my feet.

Ulquiorra followed. Instead of my stupid excuse for a path, perfect cylinders of spiritual pressure covered every step he took. "Ah, Ulquiorra…I'm not going to last like this," I warned, wincing as a bit of my path started to crumble. Ulquiorra took one look over his shoulder and another ahead of him. Yammy was ahead of us by a hundred feet already.

I could've sworn I saw Ulquiorra sigh as he calmly walked over to me. _Oh, don't mind me, I'm only about to fall into the darkness if you don't HURRY UP AND HELP ME!_ I mentally screamed.

"You are hopeless," Ulquiorra noted.

"Ya don't say," I agreed, but didn't make any remarks that would result in him leaving me here to die. He took a hand out of his pocket and reached toward me. "What are you…?"

He placed the fingertips of his pointer and middle finger on the center of my forehead. All of a sudden I had a flash of Ulquiorra's other half, tracing the contours of my face when he had temporarily taken over Ulquiorra's soul. The vision made me take an involuntary step back. I gasped as I lost my footing and prepared to fall, but felt a sudden surge of power course through my body and instead stepped on solid ground.

"What…"

"I sent my spiritual power through your soul and strengthened it temporarily. It should last for the duration of time we will be traveling through the garganta," Ulquiorra explained, turning his back on me and walking away. "Are you planning to stay there for the rest of your life?"

"…" Without giving an answer, I followed him. With the added pressure, I had a stable path to walk on. In the distance, I saw Yammy watching us.

Well, here goes.

.^._.^._.^._.^._.^._.^._.^._.^._.^._.^

Me: Yep, you know what this means! The story's getting to this point *squeal* I'm so happy!

Alexia: W-why?

Me: What do you mean, 'why'?! The plot of the story is binding in with the original story, meaning that it's going to be just more than your life's incredibly interesting events T_T

Alexia: -.-' You don't need to be sarcastic about it. After all, you came up with—

Me: Anyways, I fell ill last week and fell behind in my writing, so I didn't update -.- I'm a lot better now, though.

Alexia: Hey, where's Grimmjow and Ulquiorra?

Me: (Points to two unconscious bodies on the floor) They really didn't want to see that picture ^_^' See you later~


	17. Recklessness Gets You Nowhere…

Me: This week was really diverse. Like, two days ago I had a sudden urge to listen to Michael Jackson…so there I was, singing along to "Smooth Criminal" and "Black or White" T_T

Alexia: I was surprised, you don't usually listen to him.

Me: -.- Exactly.

Grimmjow: Who the hell are we talking about?

(Shows Grimmjow the "Thriller" music video)

Me: There you have it ^_^

Grimmjow: …

Alexia: What?

Grimmjow: That shit's catchy •-•

Alexia and I: O.o

Grimmjow: Don't look at me like that!

Me: Okay, okay…so, as we teach Grimmjow how to moonwalk, you can read the next chapter ;D it's in Ulquiorra's POV, so please review and tell me if I portrayed him okay -.-'

**SEPTEMBER THIRD, PART 1: CONTINUED**

If I had known that the trip through the garganta would've been like this, I wouldn't have agreed to bring Alexia along as well.

"Hey, hurry up!" Yammy told Alexia. She made a fist and held it out, extending her middle finger at him. That seemed to anger him further. "Bitch."

"I'm not interested in dying today, thank you very much," she replied. She was walking at a moderate speed but, either way, was falling behind.

"Woman," I called out to her.

"Yeah?"

"It would be convenient for you to walk at a faster pace."

"…" She pouted a bit but set into a small jog, catching up to us in a matter of seconds. "Are we there yet?"

"Sound like a damn kid," Yammy grumbled.

"Well, we've been walking for a long time," she defended. "I thought it wouldn't take that long."

On cue, I noticed the atmosphere in the path ahead of us was pitch-black. "We are here," I said, slowing down and waiting for all of us to be together. When I glanced at her, Alexia seemed excited about something and, a few seconds later, knew that I thought so.

"S-sorry, it's just that I haven't been to the World of the Living since…well, I'm not completely sure."

"Did we ask?" Yammy nearly shouted at her. She lost her apologetic look and instead stared at Yammy sternly. "What?"

"…"

"I said, what?"

"…Nothing. Ulquiorra, this is where we're supposed to get out of the garganta, right?" she ended up dismissing him. I knew from observing this before that Yammy was going to be more powerful when he got enraged, which was an advantage for me. Knowing him, he'd want to do all the work. Fine by me.

The voice of humans and other things in the background were heard as I opened the garganta. We seemed to be around five hundred feet above the park below. All of the different colors and sounds clashed like two armies confronting each other in battle. It was incredibly different from Hueco Mundo.

"Woah," Alexia laughed. "So this is Karakura?"

"You say that as if you have been here before," I noted, seeing her panic.

"N-no, it's just that I've heard of this place…before."

"Hey, Ulquiorra," Yammy spoke. "Where are we heading?"

"You can go to ground level; after all, not many humans can see us." No sooner had I said these words Yammy leapt out of the garganta and onto the park below us, causing an explosion and a crater in the ground where he'd landed.

Alexia voiced my thoughts. "If we need to act like we don't exist that isn't the way to do it."

"It has already happened," I said, stepping out of the garganta. It started to close. "If you do not make haste you will become imprisoned in the garganta for eternity."

She made a move to get out but hesitated at the last second. I should've known: she was a human who'd probably fall to her death if she got out.

"Are you afraid of heights?" I asked,. She shook her head. In the blink of an eye, I made a grab for her and somehow she saw it coming, backing away and almost falling into the abyss of the garganta. Her eyes said an apology and I held out my hand and she took it, shutting her eyes as she stepped out. I used my spiritual pressure to put an invisible platform where she was standing so she would not fall. Once she was out, the garganta completely closed and I dropped altitude, feeling her grip increase. She was still holding onto my hand when I reached the ground, dust from Yammy's arrival still in the air. Yammy could see us from a fee feet away and sent me a strange look. "Let go, woman."

"…Right," she smiled a little and let go. "There's a lot of people here." None of them failed to see the commotion that Yammy had caused. Several humans were wearing the same type of clothing, a girl with short, spiky black hair among them. Yammy gave a grunt of discomfort.

"Ugh, I was here a few times before. Why the hell is it so hard to breathe? The air's so thin, and this place looks a lot more boring," he complained.

"Stop whining, Yammy," I commanded. "You insisted on coming here with me, after all."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"I thought that Aizen let you pick who to go with you?" Alexia spoke up.

"I did have liberty of picking—until he found out about my mission and wouldn't let me get away from him until I said he could go," I replied.

"Come on, I wasn't that clingy," disagreed Yammy.

"You refused to let me enter my own room."

"You could've just beat the shit outta me and got it over with."

"I prefer not to waste my energy on you."

"Fuck you too, then," Yammy proclaimed after not being able to come up with another comeback. We all shifted out attention to our environment. Many humans were afraid of nearing the crater, and others were asking pointless questions such as 'Was it a meteor?', 'Is it safe to get near?', and 'What was that?' _If they want to know then they should inspect the area and not just stand there._

"These humans are annoying me too damn much," Yammy complained. "They keep staring at us like we're aliens or something."

"We technically are…," Alexia reminded him.

"Shut up. I'm hungry…" Yammy took a deep breath and the souls of the humans around us were suctioned into Yammy's mouth. They yelled in agony as they were eaten. Even for a town like this, I realized that there were, in fact, many humans around here. After consuming about three hundred souls, Yammy stopped his gonzui.

Alexia, as I had only noticed at the moment, was staring in horror. I realized her soul could have been eaten as well and scolded myself for not thinking of it before. She looked over at me with eyes that could only be described as pitiful. I stared at her coldly and her expression hardened. Much better.

"Yuck," Yammy belched. "What kind of souls taste that bad?"

"They were weak. Did you expect a normal human's soul to taste good?" I asked skeptically.

"They didn't stop staring and it was pissing me off!" he whined like a child.

"Normal humans cannot see us, therefore it was impossible for them to see you."

"Either way, it was pissing me off. So, who else do we have to kill?"

"There is no need to kill any others, other than the one we are looking for," I answered.

"You mean we actually have to look for one guy in this whole place? Seems like too much for just one person."

"As I said before, there are only three with spiritual potential. It shouldn't be difficult to seek him out." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement and identified it as the girl with spiky black hair that I had seen earlier. "It looks like we have some survivors."

"What happened…here…?" She struggled to get up, sweat formed on her forehead. "Everyone's passed out…who are those guys…" As she mumbled, Yammy took the opportunity and walked up to her, grinning evilly as she became weaker in his presence.

"I used my gonzui and you're still alive, huh? You didn't really try to stop us, but that means that you're pretty strong. Am I right?" Yammy asked her. As if she could answer; her brows were furrowed in confusion and it looked like she was about to pass out. Alexia stepped forward a few feet but didn't say anything. She glanced at me and I saw the same look she'd given me a few days ago during our meeting, in which Aizen had nearly killed Cyan Sun-sun. Something stirred in me when I saw it and I involuntarily narrowed my eyes at her. "Hey, Ulquiorra! Is this chick who we're looking for?" Yammy yelled, snapping me out of my staring tournament with Alexia. I sighed a little.

"She is about to collapse just from being near you," I stated. "Do not make foolish assumptions. She is nothing but another piece of trash."

"Well, that's too bad," Yammy said. "Guess she was just once lucky piece of shit." A feral grin broke onto his face. "Now, die!" He brought his leg up and was in the process of kicking the girl when Alexia ran forward and I grabbed her wrist, pulling her back.

"No, wai—" She was interrupted as a deafening boom was heard. Her eyes widened. "Shit."

A muscular, tan man with a right arm that looked like a hollow's arm had somehow blocked Yammy's attack. His shaggy, dark brown hair hid his eyes from me. He said nothing and stayed still. Behind him was a girl with long orange hair and grey eyes, shielding the girl whom Yammy was about to kill. This time Alexia narrowed her eyes, glaring at the other girl; why, I couldn't figure out.

"Who the hell are you?" Yammy asked.

It was obvious that the man was struggling to hold up the weight of Yammy's leg. I knew it wasn't even a fraction of the effort Yammy could've done; this man was useless. It seemed like he knew it, as well.

"Hurry, Inoue," he said. "Take Tatsuki and go."

The orange-head, Inoue, nodded. "Be careful, Sado-kun…" She took the other girl whom 'Sado' had named Tatsuki and started to lift her up. Meanwhile, Yammy turned to me.

"Yo, Ulquiorra! Is this guy it!?" He asked rather loudly. I gave an inward sigh at his stupidity.

"If you had actually tried to hone your spiritual abilities, not to mention your logical sense, it would be obvious to you that this man is nothing but trash," I answered matter-of-factly. Yammy grinned when he heard my response.

"Alright then!" he exclaimed. The man used his right arm to gather spiritual energy around it, building up an attack. _Too slow_, I thought. It didn't seem that his agility was any better than his common sense; he should've ran away when he had the chance. 'Sado' swung his arm and as predicted, was too late. Yammy wasted almost no effort in tearing the man's arm from his body.

"Sado-kun!" The orange headed girl yelled, setting the girl in her arms down and running to his side. _Naïve, weak, vulnerable_. Taking advantage of the moment, I spared a glance at Alexia. Her eyes, if possible, were wider. Yet her eyes portrayed a look that said 'I knew this would happen.' I let go of her wrist and she instead retreated farther away from the current scene, backing up against a tree.

"Alexia," I walked up to her and put a hand to her forehead, not caring about the fact that Yammy was on the verge of killing a few humans. "If you do not like what you see, then go away and come back later. Do not cause trouble. We will be in this same place."

"N-no…it's not that," she countered. "Don't worry about me."

"…"

"Ulquiorra," Yammy droned. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at him. "Is that girl trash, too?"

I watched the girl, sobbing over an injured friend. _So useless_. "Yes. She is trash."

"Good!" Yammy jabbed a finger in her direction, aiming for her head. Then she raised her head and I saw resolve in her eyes.

"Santen Kesshun," she said, a triangular and transparent shield forming in front of her. Surprisingly, it was enough to block Yammy. He was enraged by that fact. As he retreated his finger unwillingly, the shield cracked and broke into a hundred pieces, the girl rising up from the ground and staring Yammy in the eye.

"Hey, what's with this chick?" Yammy questioned, as if someone was actually going to answer his question.

"Sōten Kisshun," 'Inoue' chanted. This time, two of the small beings that came from her hair clips flew out and linked together, forming another shield over the man's arm. An orange glow grew bright as the man's arm slowly began to regain its form.

"What? She's healing him!? I thought he was dead already!" Yammy made me close my eyes in annoyance, then opened them to observe her. She seemed to notice that we were watching her and clenched her hands. _Healing, he says? No…it might seem like it at first, but when you see it in action it looks more like time reversal or spacial renewal. It is much more complex than a simple healing ability. Whatever it is, I haven't seen anything like it before._

"What an interesting human…," I murmured, making sure that only I could hear what I'd said.

She was contemplating over something, her eyebrows furrowed together and sweat on her forehead. Then she decided on something and proceeded to put both arms straight in front of her, joining her hands and lowering her head. After a few seconds, with renewed resolve, she again looked at Yammy sternly.

"Tsubaki!" she called out. Only one of her devices flew out around her, positioning itself in the center of her hands. Her spiritual pressure went up slightly. Noting that it wasn't powerful enough to be on par with Yammy, I already knew the outcome. As if resigning to something in her mind, she gave a small nod and said, "Koten Zanshun. I…reject!"

The built-up spiritual pressure was released and hit full speed towards Yammy, who looked quite surprised. That was short-lived. As I had predicted, Yammy was able to block the attack as casually as swatting away a fly.

"Hah! Did you think that little insect was gonna hurt me?" Yammy complained.

She was bewildered, muttering, "Tsubaki…no way…how…" Slowly, she began to finally realize how much stronger Yammy was and started to back away.

"What do we do with her, Ulquiorra?" Yammy asked boredly. "She's a pretty strange girl. Should we tear off her limbs and take her to Aizen?"

"That isn't necessary, Yammy," I replied, noticing the look of disappointment on his face. It completely disappeared with my next sentence. "Kill her, Yammy."

"Heh." He held out his palm and thrust it towards her. Her eyes widened but she didn't look or run away, which confused me. _Was she in shock? How stupid._ It wasn't that hard to grasp the situation she was in. She was about to die; that's all there was to it.

That was what I had thought when another spiritual presence was detected, one much stronger than those two humans. Dust and dirt flew up from the impact of that spiritual power interfering with Yammy's. The surprise on Yammy's face was evident as he believed what he saw less and less. As soon as the dust settled, the form of a Soul Reaper emerged, seemingly protecting the other orange-headed girl from Yammy. He had bright orange hair._ It might be him, but he doesn't seem to have a bankai. Yet his spiritual pressure is not being held back and is mildly high. The question is if he meets Lord Aizen's expectations._

"Kurosaki-kun…," the girl said. She looked on the verge of tears.

"Sorry I'm late, Inoue," the boy answered.

"No…I'm sorry, Kurosaki-kun," she blamed herself. How annoying. "If only…if only I was stronger…I could've protected everyone. But…"

"Don't apologize, Inoue," 'Kurosaki' replied. "Everything'll be all right when I beat these two!" Overconfident fool. It was arrogant people like him who I disliked the most.

He brought out his zanpakuto, a large sword almost as tall as he was. Holding it out in front of him, he put a hand over the wrist of his other hand and his spiritual pressure created a circle around him on the ground. "Bankai!" he yelled. The spiritual pressure exploded, causing a flurry of dust to come up again. When it settled, I could immediately see changes in his appearance. His zanpakuto was sleek and black, and his shihakusho was form fitting, long-sleeved and what was once the white undergarment was now red. "Tensa Zangetsu."

The girl behind him contemplated over something, putting her hands on her chest. She seemed troubled about something. She came to attention when Kurosaki called her. "Inoue, get back."

"Okay…," she replied hesitantly, backing away. Why she was afraid of her own friend was beyond me.

"Hey, he said 'bankai', right?" Yammy asked me. "Is this it, Ulquiorra?"

"It seems so," I replied. "It seems your recklessness lured him here. Back bankai, orange hair—it is him, Yammy."

"Looks like we're gonna have some fun."

"This is not a playdate, Yammy. Do not act with abandon."

"So we don't have to look for you anymore, huh?" Yammy excitedly asked Ichigo Kurosaki, ignoring me. "Suerte!" Yet another punch was thrown by him, which was stopped in its tracks by Kurosaki's zanpakuto.

"You're the one who tore Chad's right arm off?" he asked, shielding his face from view. After a few seconds of disbelief on Yammy's part, he looked up. In his eyes was a burning fire. "Then I'm going to take your arm, too."

Yammy quickly retreated his arm. It wasn't quick enough. In a fraction of a second, Ichigo Kurosaki sliced cleanly through Yammy's right arm. It landed with a thud on the floor. For a second, even I was surprised.

"What!?" Yammy exclaimed.

_ Idiot. I told him to not be reckless and that's the first thing he does. Still, it's quite strange that that boy can cut through Yammy's hierro so effortlessly. According to additional details Aizen gave me, he has only recently acquired a bankai. To think that his spiritual pressure would increase this much after a short time_. My thoughts were put to rest when I compared his powers to Lord Aizen's and the rest of the espada. _As of now, though, his power does not come off as a threat…_

"You little shit!" Yammy spat out.

"You're still standing?" Kurosaki asked rhetorically. "You're tougher than I thought."

At that moment, I decided to step forward. "It looks as if you are being overpowered, Yammy," I noted. "Would you like me to take your place?"

"Shut up!" Yammy barked back at me. He made a move to use his own sword.

"Now, are you truly planning on using your sword for someone like him?" I asked.

"I said, shut up!" Disregarding me, he resumed his act of unsheathing his sword. Suddenly, Ichigo Kurosaki's eyes widened in astonishment at Yammy's blade, as if realizing something important. He staggered, covering half of his face with one hand. Yammy took this as an advantage and wasted no time in kicking him in the stomach, sending him backwards.

"Kurosaki-kun!" The girl quickly ran towards him.

"Stay back, Inoue!" Kurosaki answered, too late. Yammy landed a hard smack on the girl and she was sent flying back, landing on the ground with a thud. "Inoue!"

"Shut up!" Yammy complained, hitting Kurosaki by landing a downward punch. It seemed almost as if he was incapable of doing anything to defend himself, which was strange considering that he'd cut off Yammy's arm a short while back.

_The fluctuations in his spiritual pressure are abnormal_, I noted. _At the lowest, it is nothing but trash—but at its highest, it is greater than mine. What logic is this?_

"He's not even trying anymore," Yammy complained as he kept beating up Kurosaki. "Oh well. Die!" He failed to notice the two other forms that appeared, their spiritual pressure also high. One of them created a shield that blocked the punch designated to kill Ichigo Kurosaki. "Whaat?" Yammy's patience, if he had any, was wearing thin.

"Sorry we're late~," A sing-song voice spoke. The shield dissipated to reveal a man and woman. The man wore a jade green robe and striped hat along with a cane, and had blonde hair. The woman had tanned skin, purple hair and cat-like honey eyes; she wore an orange shirt and black bottom.

"These assholes just keep coming outta nowhere! I'll kill you both!" Yammy exclaimed and made a move to hit them. In one swift flick of her wrist, the woman flipped Yammy over, surprising him.

"Kisuke, hand me the medicine," she said. It registered in my mind. _Kisuke Urahara and Yoruichi Shihoin. So this is them?_

"Alright," Kisuke answered, handing her a small sown sack. At that moment Yammy immediately got up, recovered from Shihoin's attack. _Fool, these people can easily overpower someone like you in your current state._

"Damn you!" he yelled. "I'm not letting you get away!" He made a grab for Yoruichi again. If I thought that Grimmjow was illogical, Yammy was a primitive menos grande.

Using what Soul Reapers called 'flash step', Yoruichi Shihoin vanished from where she was and reappeared on the fist that Yammy had been aiming at her. She landed a punch on his face, used his shoulder as support and swiveled around, delivering him a roundhouse kick. Jumping into the air and twisting while in it, she gave him another powerful blow to the head that nearly made him pass out.

I didn't miss the small wince that she gave when she was done.

Yoruichi neared the injured girl and took a pill out if the packet. "Can you swallow this?" she asked.

"Mm," the murmured in response. "Is Kurosaki-kun…alright?"

"Yeah," she replied.

I took advantage of their seemingly careless nature to observe their spiritual pressures. They are more or less on par with each other, but Ichigo Kurosaki has yet to reach them. Aizen has nothing to worry about. However…

"This's crazy," Alexia suddenly appeared at my side, eyebrows furrowed as she surveyed the scene around them. "They're really powerful…" Her gaze was fixated on the orange-headed girl, and it didn't seem like she took a liking to her. _Good, we cannot have her being sympathetic of trash. That will only get her killed._

"If Lord Aizen has acknowledged them as two of the three noticeable people with higher spiritual pressures, then of course they would be powerful. Not any type of trash is suited to be a match of any sort for Lord Aizen," I replied.

"…You sound obsessed with him."

"He is one to be respected."

"…If you ask me, he just has too much of a god-complex."

"He will become a god in due time," I reminded her. She panicked a bit when I said that.

"I wasn't supposed to say that out loud," she scolded herself by smacking her forehead. Suddenly, I sensed a spike in Yammy's decreased spiritual pressure and directed my attention to him again. Alexia followed my lead.

"Baaah!" Yammy sprang up from the ground, his face bloody and nose broken.

"What a persistent brute," Yoruichi remarked.

_He's using cero?_ I thought as a red glow formed when Yammy opened his mouth. The glow formed into a red orb. Surprise was evident on Yoruichi's face._ I didn't think they were this unprepared._

As if waiting for the moment that this would happen, Kisuke Urahara intervened. Yammy, not able to see the outcome because of his own attack, was oblivious to Urahara launching an attack of his own that was similar to a cero.

"Hah!" Yammy exclaimed confidently. The fool. "You're just a pile of ashes now. No one can dodge a cero at this range…wh…what!?"

Urahara stood confidently in front of Yoruichi Shihoin and 'Inoue', holding a zanpakuto in one hand, with his other on the striped hat he was using to cover part of his face. "You…!" Yammy started. _His rants are slowing increasing in annoyance._ "Who the hell are you!? What did you do? How did you stop my cero!?"

"If you haven't noticed, an explosion in this type of place can be very dangerous; therefore, I only needed an attack of the same type and power to nullify yours," Kisuke Urahara explained matter-of-factly.

"What…!?"

"If you find it hard to believe me, then why don't you see it for yourself?" Urahara suggested casually, as if arrancars invading Karakura town was a daily occurrence. _He's going to use an attack similar to Yammy's…if it was just powerful enough to cancel out both of their offensive abilities, then I should be able to deflect his attack, should he try to inflict critical damage on Yammy._ I was getting impatient of Yammy's constantly useless conversation, although it has benefitted only once.

Kisuke Urahara got into a stance and swung his sword upwards, saying, "Cry, Benihime." As expected, something akin to a cero erupted from his zanpakuto and headed straight for Yammy.

"The dumbass, if he just stands there he'll get killed," Alexia said. Her tone of voice suggested that she didn't necessarily care.

_What a pain_. I used sonido to appear in front of Kisuke's attack and deflected it with my hand. As predicted, it wasn't difficult to shatter, which surprised him. I supposed the fact that I had only taken some sort of action until now also contributed to his surprise.

"Ul…Ulquiorra…," Yammy was about to start saying something. _I've had enough of your antics_. Unexpected to everyone else, I swung my arm back and landed a blow on Yammy's stomach, making him stagger back. "What the…hell!"

"Stop being an insolent fool," I told him. "If you had been paying any attention to what I had said before we came here, and if you were better at using your common sense, you would have figured out by now that these two are Kisuke Urahara and Yoruichi Shihoin. In your current stage, you cannot hope to defeat them."

I lifted a finger and tore open the sky's atmosphere, revealing the abyss of the garganta beyond it. "We retreat now, Yammy." Yoruichi Shihoin got into a stance.

"So you're running away?" she taunted.

"A hopeless attempt to lure us in?" I countered. "If you have not noticed already, when you are protecting that trash and fighting us, it is obvious who would have the upper hand in that kind of battle."

_Alexia. What is she doing?_ I saw her still standing where I'd left her, as if in a trance. "Woman," I called out to her. She immediately snapped out of her hypnotized state. "We're leaving."

"Ah…" She quickly ran over to me, trying not to make eye contact with anyone. Unfortunately, she was noticed. It wasn't like she wouldn't be, though—a human surrounded by spiritual entities.

"What are you doing with her?" Yoruichi Shihoin asked, suspicious of our intentions. "I feel like I've seen her before."

"Hm…same here," Kisuke Urahara agreed. "But I don't think her soul is ready for—?"

Alexia was furiously massaging her head. "What are you doing?" I asked, impatient.

"L-let's just go," she said, slowly gaining her composure. "It's gone now, anyways."

I turned my back and went into the garganta. Once again, I had to empower her with some of my spiritual pressure so she wouldn't fall into the abyss.

"Wait, why are you taking that girl with you?" Yoruichi tried to get an answer.

"There is no reason to tell you such a thing," I replied. "Our mission here is done. We shall tell Lord Aizen that the substitute Soul Reaper he has been so intrigued in is nothing but a piece of trash not worthy of his attention." The garganta started to close after I ended my last sentence.

"Hey, Orihime," Alexia suddenly called out. I assumed that Orihime was who I'd heard was named Inoue. Said girl slowly craned her neck and her eyebrows furrowed.

Reading her lips, I saw her mumble a small "Who…you…"

Alexia smiled almost bitterly. "Happy Birthday, Orihime Inoue." With that, the garganta completely closed and we were left in silence.

"…Uh, which way do we go?" Alexia attempted to break the silence.

"To your left," I responded, leading her and Yammy in that direction. Yammy's furious aura was impossible not to notice. "Yammy, calm down. What happened only served you right; you were being reckless and that is where it got you."

"I could've killed them!" he complained. "But you didn't gimme a chance!"

"Hey, Yammy…can you lower the volume a bit…," Alexia murmured, rubbing her temple as she walked. There was a confusing aura around her. "Don't ask me how I feel, cause I don't even know that. My head hurts, but…"

"Tch, we didn't ask," Yammy grumbled but lowered his yells to loud remarks. Actually, it wasn't much of a difference.

The rest of the way back to Hueco Mundo was strangely silent. No arguments from Yammy or Alexia; then again, Alexia had a migraine and Yammy was depressed about his defeat and lost arm. I preferred it this way. I didn't have to put up with their ranting.

As before, the path ahead of us darkened and I reopened the garganta, stepping through and waiting for those other two to follow. Yammy stomped out and Alexia stumbled as she exited. Her skin tone was slightly yellow. "Why do you look ill, woman?" I asked.

"I do…?" she touched her cheek with one hand. "Strange, it's not like I feel sick or anything…"

"You have been acting sick as well. You should go to the Octava so he may do something about it; we cannot be struggling over you."

"Thanks," she replied sarcastically as she made her way out of the garganta. Suddenly, her eyes widened before they slowly closed and she fainted, landing on the sands of Hueco Mundo.

"What in the fuck's with her?" Yammy asked, actually forgetting about what happened and nearing Alexia's unconscious form. "Wasn't she fine on the way here?"

"Apparently," I answered. "She refused to tell me what was going on with her, though. This is only the outcome of her decisions."

"Cold, don't you think?" Yammy remarked, picking up her body. "Like a fucking rag doll."

"Take her with you and we'll drop her off at Szayelapporo Granz's lab; he'll take care of her from there," I replied. It might've been slightly offensive that I showed no concern for her, but unnecessary questions would arise if I were to show any type of kindness towards her.

"If Grimmjow shows up?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Dunno, just wondering."

"I'll deal with him."

"…Why exactly does she hate him when they were sucking each other's faces off a few days ago?"

Ire arose in me and I fought it down instantly. Those were unnecessary emotions that were a hassle to deal with. "Why do you not ask them yourself?"

"Well geez, someone's touchy," Yammy remarked.

"Let's go, Yammy."

"Yeah, yeah."

Not too long after, we made it back to Las Noches and started for Szayelapporo's lab. Alexia seemed to be in a deep slumber. "Soooo…" Yammy's attempts at starting a conversation got him nowhere. "You been doing anything lately?"

"…"

"How's life?"

"We are technically dead."

"Then, how's death?"

"…"

"Oh come on, it was just a question!"

"Look here," a different voice came into the conversation without invitation. "Where're you takin' the hostage?"

"Nnoitora," I acknowledged, "what are you doing here?"

"I'm not allowed to be walking over here or something? Didn't know this part of Las Noches was especially for you and Yammy."

"Yo, Nnoitora," Yammy greeted with a grin.

"What happened to your arm, man? Who beat your sorry ass?" Nnoitora provoked. He was successful.

"Hey, the guy just got lucky," Yammy grumbled. "Besides, it's not like I was actually trying to fight for that fucker."

"Whatever you say, Yam," Nnoitora snickered. "That's why your face's all deformed and shit too, right?"

"What?! I dare you to say that to my face, you little shit!"

"I just did, stupid ass!"

"Give her to me before you crush her," I beckoned to Yammy. At once, he noticed the girl thrown over his shoulder and carelessly lowered her down for me to take. "If you are going to kill each other, at least clean up afterwards."

"You know, you can be pretty nasty when you want to," Nnoitora remarked as he brought out his double-crescentic sword.

"I am not 'nasty'; what I am advising to you is common sense." Without saying another word, I took Alexia away from the starting scene of a worthless fight.

As I neared Szayelapporo's lab, I drifted off into thought. Day in, day out: bloodshed. Lord Aizen knew it, and didn't seem to care. Most of the ones who died were low-level arrancar that lived in the depths of Las Noches. I would aimlessly wander around and find the bloody form of what was once a being that still had a soul. A male. Female. Child. At least, that was what they looked like. In reality, they were all the same. It didn't mean anything special; dying was a part of daily life. Then there were the small towns and villages that used to exist around Las Noches. Those were now ruins.

And then there was me…

_I awoke to a brightly lit room and I instinctively shut my eyes again. "Now, there is no need to feign your unconsciousness, Ulquiorra Schiffer." It was the same voice as Aizen's. The bastard—_ugh!_ "I can see that you're in pain. Tell me, do you hear someone talking to you? Do you feel your soul being split in two? Is it simply unbearable?"_

_ Even though he was saying these things in a nonchalant manner, he angered me; everything he said was true. A small voice was somewhere in my head, as if a distance from me. _Who is this?

_** 'I am a part of you.'**_

What? _My eyes went wide as I heard the voice clearly._ Who are you?

**_ 'Haaah? I just answered that~'_**

_ "Is he speaking to you?" Aizen asked as I went into an upright position on the couch I was lying on. "This is only the first part. For some reason, he did not take action right away; we'll have to fix that."_

_ "What are you saying?" I asked. "You planned this?" A pounding in my head nearly knocked me unconscious._

_"That's one way to look at it. Let's just say that you were the right gamble," Aizen said. "Now, you'll feel intense pain and will black out. I'll give you one warning: get out alive and you will be admitted, die…well, I think you know what happens when you die. You are not a child, I assume?"_

_ "I assure you that I am not, sir."_

_ "Good to see that you are envisioning me as your superior already." His arrogant manner appealed to me less and less. As I was about to tell him, I suddenly lost consciousness and slipped into another world I didn't recognize. It was white everywhere; no walls, ceiling or floor. I could've been suspended in the air for all I knew._

_ "Finally, I thought you'd never give in," said a voice to my right. When I turned to look, no one was there. "So, you ready?"_

_ "What am I doing here, who are you and why do you exist?" I answered._

_ "So many questions, too little time," the voice replied. A form suddenly appeared behind me, going for a hit to my neck. By some type of skill—or luck—I was able to dodge before he landed his throw._

_ I took a good look at him. He was a few inches taller than I, had white hair that went down to his waist, crimson eyes, paler skin than mine(I couldn't fathom how that was even possible) and white clothing. He wore a smirk on his face, as if he knew something that I did not. From studying his spiritual pressure, I knew that he was stronger than I; although I wouldn't know just how much until I started fighting him. The only problem with that was…I didn't have a weapon._

_That didn't concern him as he charged towards me. "W-wai—" I tried to stop him but he hit me with a roundhouse kick and sent me flying backwards. I realized that I still had my wings and used them to fly upwards._

_ "It seems that you're afraid," the voice said. "Why not come down here so we can chat, huh?"_

_ "You are an imbecile if you think I'll give in to you," I answered._

_ "Well then, if I'm an imbecile…what are you?" He disappeared and reappeared in the air, face to face with me. In a blink, he had his hand on my neck. Narrowing my eyes at him, I formed a cero and fired it. It hit him point on._

_ "Looks like you actually know how to fight," his voice was distant. When the debris settled, he was back on the ground. "But…"_

_ "I will only fight you if you answer my questions," I commanded. Instead of complying, the other person only smiled wryly._

_ "That's a problem then."_

_ "Answer me…trash."_

_ "Oh?" he was surprised. "That's not very nice."_

_ "You're not a very likable person."_

_ He sighed and pulled out a sword._ Damn. _Then he unsheathed another one and threw it at me. In shock, I was lucky to be able to catch it; otherwise it would've stabbed me._ Being cunning, huh? That will get you nowhere, trash.

_Somehow, I found the way to fight him. It was like an unfathomable routine, slowly increasing speed until I could barely keep up. "Tell me, what are you feeling?" he suddenly asked when we crossed swords._

_ "Nothing," I answered without hesitation. "What is there to feel?"_

_ "You're wrong." He increased the pressure on his sword and made me stagger. "Don't you think that it's strange? If you don't feel anything then why are you even fighting? Come now; let me kill you so we can be over with this."_

_ "The only reason I am fighting you is because I wouldn't let myself be defeated by a piece of trash like you."_

_ "You haven't realized it!" he suddenly exclaimed. "Remember what I told you earlier! I am part of you, you fool!"_

_ "I am a fool?" I asked provocatively. "Stop inserting a mirror in front of you when you see me. There is no way you are even a fraction of what I am."_

_ In a second, he slashed across my chest and blood spurted out from the gash he'd created. "I do believe that trash is on a higher rank than you, then?"_

_Something arose in me. Like a feeling of need. And as I slowly composed myself and started to fight him again, that need grew stronger. As the fight progressed on, I realized what it was. Want._

_ Want to survive. The need to live. And instinct. The very things I despised._

There is nothing I live for. I do not have to exist. I use logic and not my instincts. But…what am I doing?

_We were both at the end of our threads. I couldn't feel my left arm and I felt that one of my ribs were broken. In contrast, he was bleeding from his shoulder (which was dislocated), one of his eyes was swollen and his white hair was turning the same color of his eyes from a kick I'd delivered to him._

_ The look he gave me…what was it? What was he trying to tell me? I felt pity, but that wasn't it. He wouldn't be fighting me if he pitied me. He could express his emotions so freely; it angered me._

Wait.

Angered? No. I can't be.

_"You despise having emotions, do you not?" He dropped his sword and walked up to me calmly. His hand reached out and—instead of harming me—landed on my chest. "Do you think it has something to do with your heart? If you want, I could take them away from you."_

_ "What are you doing?" He was using his other hand to trace the features of my face. I stepped away from him but he kneed my stomach and I fell to the floor. Once there, he resumed what he was doing. Then a burning feeling flew up in the places he'd traced and I felt pain unlike any other, but refused to show it._

_ "Don't hold back," he beckoned. "After all, you'll be my prisoner from now on."_

_ I glared at him murderously. "What the hell are you doing to me?"_

_ "I'm getting rid of those feelings. If you ever feel them too much, you'll be reminded of my presence and have to pay the price. Watch out, Ulquiorra. After all, I need your body when you die."_

_ "Why you…" The pain took over and I blacked out._

That look he had given me.

It was the same one Alexia had gave me when I stopped her from going to Aizen, at the meeting.

Looking at her unconscious form, I studied her face. For a moment her eyebrows furrowed, but she calmed down and she went back to normal. She was peaceful whenever she was at rest; I'd noticed when she was reading or when she'd taken a nap in my room. Carefree. My face neared hers and I pressed my lips to her forehead, then quickly retreated. _What…did I just do?_

"Ulquiorra."

~~~•~~~•~~~•~~~•~~~•~~~

Me: So, I've done my research, and yes: Orihime's birthday is on the same day that Ulquiorra and Yammy go to the World of the Living ^_^

Alexia: Why did you have me say that to her?

Me: -.- I don't like her. At all.

Alexia: -.- Okay, I thought it was just me who was annoyed.

Grimmjow: But hey, she has huge br—

Me: (Covers Grimmjow's mouth with tape) We know, okay? But her common sense is another story altogether T_T

Ulquiorra: How do you know all these things about her?

Me: Well…um…

Alexia: Ah, that…

Both: She's famous.

Ulquiorra: Like, a celebrity?

Grimmjow: (Rips off tape and smirks) I can see _why_…ow…shouldn't have done that ._.

Me: So yeah, there you have it! That's the only logical explanation for us knowing a lot of stuff about her!

Alexia: (Nods in agreement)

Ulquiorra: I have a feeling that you're hiding something T_T

*Awkward silence*

Ulquiorra: I'll be leaving then.

Grimmjow: Yeah, me too.

(Five seconds after they've left)

Me: Oh my god, I can breathe again -_-

Alexia: …

Me: What?

Alexia: You realize that what we said was true, though?

Both: -.-'


	18. Let Me Tell You Something

Me: T-T Christmas was so painful.

Alexia: T_T?

Grimmjow: What's with your hands?

Me: I was putting up the Christmas tree and all the branches scratched me and now I'm sad ._.

Ulquiorra: Nature must not like you.

Alexia: ^_^ Yeah, that's probably it…

Me: B-but the tree was fake!

Grimmjow: Your family makes really good…what're they called?

Me: Tamales.

Unbr0ken: Typical Mexican family (smirk)

Me: -.-' They _did_ taste good.

Ulquiorra: What is this? (Holds up mistletoe)

Alexia and I: O/./O Uh…

Grimmjow: Here (takes mistletoe) you just hold it over two people's heads…(Holds over Unbr0ken's head) and then they have to kiss.

Unbr0ken: Ah…yeah, um…they don't have to, but—!

Grimmjow: (Kisses Unbr0ken) That's all there is to it ^_^

Unbr0ken: You…(Glares at me) You had this all planned, didn't you?

**SEPTEMBER THIRD, PART TWO *GRIMMJOW'S POV***

"Ulquiorra," I repeated. His face was near Alexia's. _Did he just…no way. He wouldn't. It's not like the bastard could feel anything for her, anyways._

"What is it that you want, Sexta?" Schiffer asked.

"You're pretty dense," I remarked. "What happened to Alexia?"

"She fainted."

Panic rose up right away. "How—"

"She would not tell me. Now, I am going to Szayelapporo's lab, get out of the way."

"No," my voice went up and I got closer to him, blocking his path. "Are you sure she's okay? Look at her. How long has she been out?"

"Stop rambling, Jeagerjaques."

"I'm not rambling, I'm worried. There's a difference, maybe you should learn it sometime." My insults didn't affect him as much as I thought they would.

"Whatever the case, I am sure you wouldn't want her to fall into a coma for an indefinite time, so step aside, trash."

_Oh, so you're crossing that border again?_

"And I'm sure that you don't want to waste your precious time with her, so just hand her over and I'll take it from there, Schiffer."

A moment of silence settled in. _Guess that's all there is to it_? "Fine," I said, turning on my heels and walking away. "I'm leaving."

"Take her."

"…What?" I turned and looked at him. What the hell was going on with him, mood swings? "Can you make sense for a second, Quarto?"

"Take her to Szayelapporo's lab and do not bother me further unless you want to get killed," Ulquiorra unceremoniously dumped Alexia into my arms. _Well, that made things a shitload clearer than before._ "And to make things clear enough for your minuscule brain to understand—"

"What the fuck did you just—"

"Actually…," Ulquiorra started. Just what was this bastard saying?! "What have you witnessed?"

"What?"

"Do you need an explanation for a question as simple as that, as well?" he asked, a cross-popping vein appearing above my head.

"You're not making any fucking sense!"

"Then I have nothing else to ask you." He calmly walked down the corridor and out of my sight, leaving me more mind-fucked than before.

"Haaaah…you can never tell what the fuck's going on with him anymore," I said to myself, kicking the door that led to Szayel's lab. In seconds, the panel slid out.

"No need to be so harsh," Szayel mumbled. His glasses were slightly hanging on his nose. That only happened when he was doing some intense studying or—whatever the hell he did. The door was unlocked and I hurriedly went in, kicking the door shut behind me.

"Got anything for a fever?" I asked as soon as I saw him. _What in Hueco Mundo…god, he looks like a freakin' zombie._ "And…you think you can try those anti-depressant pills sometime?"

"Very funny," Szayel remarked in a yawn, getting up and pushing up his glasses. "Don't touch anything unless you want to be my next test subject."

No way in hell was I going to touch shit now that he'd said that.

Szayel went down a corridor and came back a few minutes later with a box, quickly got some stuff from it, then called me over. _Hope this stuff works_, I thought, putting my hand to Alexia's forehead. _Now that I feel it, she's actually cold, not hot._

"Can you set her in a sitting position on the table, Grimmjow?" Szayel asked. Instead of answering him, I went and got to it. He did some basic stuff first, checking her pulse, temperature, heartbeat and reflexes. I was surprised she hadn't woken up yet.

"So…what's her temperature?" I asked.

"It's a few degrees below normal," Szayel replied. "It's usually a sign that she's going to get a fever or an infection, but—" he stopped when Alexia shivered in her sleep, "—in anticipation for that, here."

He handed me the box. "Okay…So, what the hell do I do with this?"

"It has medicines for every possible illness having to do with fevers. The most common are colds and just a fever in general, but in case it's something else we need to be prepared. Don't look at me like that, Grimmjow; the purpose of each medication is written on their labels, so even someone like you can understand."

"What's that supposed to mean, Pinky?" I provoked.

"Exactly what I said," he responded, not fazed. He sighed. "I find it strange how she is incredibly susceptible to these kinds of things. That and the fact that she tends to get injured often." I picked her up from the table and laid her down on the couch instead.

"Yeah, well, she practically asks for it," I remarked. "Needs someone to knock some sense into her."

"…talking," I only heard the last part of what Szayel said.

"What?"

"Look who's talking." He kept going before I could say anything. "Have you told her, Grimmjow? Have you even made any type of contact with her since the 31st?"

"…"

"Just how long do you think you can go without saying anything?"

"As long as I fucking want," I snapped. "You have nothing to do with this, alright? Don't butt in where your ass isn't needed." Before he could reply, we both halted when Alexia murmured something in her sleep and turned over, her back facing us. I sighed exasperatedly and walked away.

"Where—"

"Somewhere. Away from you."

Without waiting for him to say anything else, I turned my back on him and left, going down a few corridors that I knew by heart. Seeing it would make me feel better, if it wasn't feeling too hostile.

"Yo," I greeted the animal once it sensed my presence. "Heard that you tried killing my sister a week ago. Didn't think Szayel was feeding you that little."

A growl in response. _Great_.

The panther came out of the shadows of his cage and into view. If it was possible, I'd say it was my twin. It had the same form as me when I was an adjuchas, with the exception that it had actual fur. That and it couldn't talk. Sighing, I sat down in front of the case, putting my hand up to the glass. It stared at my hand for a second and I wondered if it was going to try and eat my hand. Instead, it went up to the glass, rubbed its head against it—as if there wasn't glass there in the first place—and purred.

"So he has another side to him."

"FUCKING—" I shouted, nearly jumping out of my skin. I swiveled around and glared at Alexia. "What the hell are you doing? Thought you fainted or some shit like that."

"Well, I'm awake now." She crossed her arms and plopped down next to me, staring at the panther. "Where's Ulquiorra?"

"How should I know? I'm not his stalker, like a certain person I know." I smirked when her expression hardened and a small blush appeared on her face.

"I don't stalk him. I'm just worried."

"What is there to worry about?" I asked skeptically, getting off and dusting off my hakama and vest. "He can take care of himself. Doesn't need 'trash' looking after him."

"…Why are you so…"

"What?"

"Nevermind."

_The fuck? _"Alright, I'm making a deal with you," I suggested. "If you go with me to our next meeting, I'll answer your question."

She furrowed her brows, thinking deeply. "That's hardly a fair trade, you know."

"Don't tell me you're traumatized 'cause of what Aizen did."

"Going to a meeting is hardly enough to make up for the question I'll ask you."

Well, shit.

"Let's just go, then," I sighed and started to walk away. "It doesn't really matter what equality there is, right?" Biting my tongue, I resisted the urge to add 'Sis' and the end of my sentence.

We were actually one of the first people to arrive at the meeting room, which was a rare event. This was a special meeting, apparently, so all espadas and their fracciones had to attend, too. The only others in the room were Stark, Lilinette, Aaroniero and (of course) Ulquiorra. When Alexia's attention automatically shifted to him I rolled my eyes.

"Over here," I grabbed her arm and steered her away from where she was planning to go—probably with the fourth. She glared at me but I ignored her. Helping her up, I managed to get her on the top column in the room, some forty feet high. She didn't seem bothered by it; even going so far as sitting on the edge and hanging her legs over the side.

My fracciòn entered the room, all bickering with each other. They spotted me and waved like we were play-pals or something. Stupid.

"Hey, Grimmjow," D-Roy grinned and sat down next to me. Shawlong decided to stay standing behind me, while Ilfort went with his brother.

"Where's Edorad and Nakim?" I grumbled. "Don't tell me they're—"

"Out hunting hollows? I'm afraid so," Shawlong finished my sentence. "They don't listen to us even if we use force."

"Next time they decide to skip out, tell 'em I'll rip off their masks if they take one step out of Las Noches."

"Yes, sir."

"Who's the kid?" D-Roy asked, flickering his eyes at Alexia. She changed her gaze into a glare when she turned to look at him. "What?"

"I'm an eighteen-year-old adult, thank you," she cleared up.

"…Really?" I asked.

"Seriously, who is she?" D-Roy annoyed me with his constant prodding. I swear, he was like a four-year-old asking the most impossible questions to answer, like 'Why is the sky blue?'. I wasted about two seconds before answering him.

"My sister."

_Bingo_. Her expression turned sour right away. "Somewhat. It's not like I've accepted it."

"Oh? 'Cause if I didn't know better I'd say that you're starting to get used to it," I crawled over to her and slung and arm around her shoulder.

"…And I suppose I already know how this is possible, right? Because you've told me everything, hence me understanding _why_ we're related."

Damn.

"H-hey, Ulquiorra," I called out, changing the subject completely. He slowly turned to face me, his expression telling me…um…I wasn't sure, but if I had to take a guess I'd say that he wasn't exactly as patient as people imagined.

"What do you want, Sexta?"

"Uh…where's Yammy?" I tried to ignore the death glare Alexia was giving me.

"…I do not know."

"Don't you think you should look for him?"

"He is not a child," he countered, but started for the door anyways. He didn't say anything else as he went out the door.

A few minutes later, everyone was present except for Ulquiorra and Yammy. Even Aizen: The Royal Pain in The Ass was calmly waiting for them. I probably wasn't the only one wondering what was taking them so long. As I thought that, the sound of footsteps started out low but got louder. One pair of them sounded more like stomping while the other was normal. _Yep, that's them._

"We have returned, Lord Aizen," Ulquiorra informed as he and Yammy emerged from the shadows.

"Welcome home, Ulquiorra, Yammy," Aizen responded, his stupid smile plastered on his face. "Now, bear the fruits of your expedition to your brothers and sisters. Everything you saw and felt. Do not spare even the slightest detail."

"Yes, sir," Ulquiorra complied almost immediately. _Lapdog_. I winced a little on the inside when I saw him delve his fingers into his left eye socket and pull out his eye. Holding his eye in his hand, he held it out in front of him and crushed it in a swift squeeze. Sparkling dust formed from his eye and traveled around the room. "See for yourselves."

That shit always freaked me out; him being able to destroy his eye in order for other people to witness what he saw. He could've talked. Then again…he just wasn't the talking type.

Closing my eyes, the images appeared in my mind right away. They were in black and white, as if we were watching from an old television. Yammy and Ulquiorra arriving (desperately wanted to beat his ass when he touched Alexia—okay, he just took her hand, but still), meeting the big-breasted chick and her guy friend, both of them clearly not strong.

Then that Kurosaki kid showed up.

I wanted to speak so badly when I saw Yammy get his arm cut off. Most of all, I wanted to tell Alexia "Who's getting their arm cut off now?" Yeah, I still wasn't over her telling me that my arm was gonna get chopped off—she told me within the first five seconds of meeting me, too. Instead I decided to keep my mouth shut for a little while. Then my expectations went downhill when Kurosaki suddenly had this little inner conflict…thing. That made the advantage go to Yammy, who took about half a second to figure it out and beat the shit out of Kurosaki. At the end, those two other people got in the way and made the whole thing pretty boring.

"I see," Aizen concluded when the scenes faded away. "So, you thought it meaningless to kill him because you failed to see him as a threat?"

"Yes," Ulquiorra answered. "Since I had seen that his strength could not possibly be in the way of our plans, I made no move to get rid of him." His comments made me angry. _He's so full of himself; if he really didn't care then he would've killed the kid_. "In addition to that—"

Well, I was never one to hold back.

"Cut the crap, Quarto," I said, calling everyone's attention to me. Good. "If I ever met a bastard that weak I'd kill him on the spot."

"Sexta—"

"I mean, killing was part of the orders, wasn't it? It didn't matter if the poor kid was worthy of it or not. Besides, knowing how loyal you are, I thought you would've killed plenty of people if it meant that you were getting your Lord Aizen's tasks done, right?"

"I must agree," Shawlong joined me. "Even if an enemy is worthless, they are still an enemy. Would it not be thoughtless to let an enemy live?"

"And what's even more stupid," I started, regaining my spotlight, "is you, Yammy. Just letting Schiffer say that he 'wasn't worth killing' when you got your arm cut off by him! Instead of it being 'he wasn't worthy to kill', it should be 'I failed to kill him'!"

"Don't talk shit about something you don't know," Yammy tried to defend himself. "I was taking care of sandal guy and that other bitch."

"Guess you were too weak to kill 'em all, then? You're lucky we can't tease you about your fucked up face. Heard your nose got busted."

"What did you—"

"Stop, Yammy," Ulquiorra prevented Yammy from charging at me. "Jeagerjaques, can you understand that the boy, as he is now, is no threat to us?"

"What?" I spat in disbelief.

"Lord Aizen is not concerned about his strength itself, but his potential and growth rate. That is the most important quality of Ichigo Kurosaki. While observing him, I noticed an imbalance in his spiritual power that was either two things: the possibility that his power could increase drastically, or the possibility that his imbalance could be a factor to bring him to our side. That is why we did not kill him."

You know that little conscience guy in your head who's always telling you to calm down when you're pissed? And almost convinces you to calm down and be a hippie?

I killed that bastard a long time ago.

"Don't you fucking lie to me! You just got scared of that kid's power 'cause it was higher than you thought. Even if we did get him on our side, what would you do if he decided to go against us?!"

He stared at me. And stared, to the point where I felt like gouging out his other eye myself. Finally, he said, "When the time comes, I will kill him. That is all. There is not a complaint for that, am I right?"

Before I could lunge at Ulquiorra and rip his head off, Aizen interrupted our lovely conversation. "Of course not. There is a absolutely no doubt in my mind that you will handle things perfectly. That is why I trust you, Ulquiorra."

"Thank you, Lord Aizen," Ulquiorra bowed to Aizen. Why the fuck was he so damn loyal to that bastard…hell, he wasn't like that before…

"Calm," Alexia suddenly spoke up. We all looked at her incredulously. "Stay calm, Grimmjow. It's not that big of a deal."

"The hell are you talking about?!" I exclaimed. She stared at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Leave your quarrels for after the meeting," Ulquiorra interrupted.

"That's right," Aizen agreed. "This meeting is not adjourned; you may all go."

As much as I didn't like him: he finally said something I liked.

"Get outta my sight," I ordered Shawlong and D-Roy. They both nodded, but D-Roy had this weird smirk on his face. That could've been because of his shark-like teeth, though. After they were gone, I glared at Alexia. "What're you still doing here?"

"Didn't have a chance to get my compass," she explained bluntly.

"So you just hang around me when it's convenient."

"If you haven't noticed already."

"You bi—where are you going?" I stopped mid-sentence, she was trying to get down from the platform we were on.

"Trying to get off."

"You need to stop worrying about hurting yourself," I said, jumping off easily.

"He says to the one who's sprained their ankle, broken their shoulder and fainted two times."

"Got that right…" I grabbed her by the waist and threw her over my shoulder, only getting a grunt of discomfort from her. I jumped down and set her on her feet. "I'm pretty sure you've fainted more than two times, though."

We were pretty much the only ones left, but I could feel another person's spiritual pressure. A very annoying, irritating-to-no-end spiritual pressure.

"Grimmy~" Luppi appeared at my side. Just fucking great. "Man, you were so pathetic right now, weren't you?"

"Get the fuck out of my sight," I answered.

"That was an awful way to diss ya. I woulda made it worse."

"I told you to shut up, didn't I?"

"Seriously, it's like they wanted to make it seem like you actually understood what was going on. As if you're smart enough to get that kind of—"

It didn't take me more than half a second to grab his neck and slam him onto the floor. "I dare you to say another word about me, fucker! I'll kill your ass so hard you'll feel it for the next two thousand years!"

"Aw, Lexi's not gonna defend me?" Luppi shifted his attention to her. She was looking over her shoulder at us, her eyebrows furrowed. For a second I thought she was going to tell me to stop—which would've gotten her a smack to the head.

Instead she stood over Luppi and gave him a swift kick to the head.

"Sorry, couldn't resist," she apologized to me and left.

"Damn, her legs are strong," Luppi chuckled. "She wasn't scared to hit me, but you look like you're scared."

The hand on his neck was exchanged for a foot that nearly crushed him. That only burst a few veins, I thought. His eyes went wide and he instantly started coughing up blood.

"You're lucky that your ass can regenerate. Next time, you're not gonna have that luxury." I grinned and left him there. Alexia was waiting for me just outside the door.

"My room?" she asked. _Not like I have a choice._

"I swear, Ulquiorra's such a stuck-up asshole," I said, for two things: to see what Alexia's reaction would be, and because I needed to vent. "I don't see what he's trying to say; so that kid was trash, but he didn't want to kill him? That's just a bunch of bull, if you ask me. The guy's already getting old."

"It seems like…well, like Ulquiorra said, Ichigo's got potential. If we can get him on our side then we basically win the war."

"You don't sound too sure about that. And it doesn't seem like you're on anyone's side."

"I'm still debating…," she mumbled.

"Damn, I wish I could've met Kurosaki myself," I said wistfully. "Could've gotten a taste of him."

Alexia's eyes widened. "Ah, you guys aren't allowed to go to the World of the Living unless Aizen says so, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Er, I was just curious."

_Yeah right._

"That's a good idea, though," I agreed with her thoughts. She raised an eyebrow. "I don't really give a shit about Aizen's orders, if you haven't already noticed. I'll see when I can sneak out to the human world."

I expected her to say something that was contrary to my suggestion, but instead she opened her mouth, then hesitantly closed it again. When she did talk, it was about something completely different. "I've noticed something different in Ulquiorra."

"…" I sweat dropped and stared at her blankly.

"What?"

"…I'm sorry, does it look like I care?"

**Bam**

"I care!" she exclaimed. _Wow, I think that's the hardest she's ever hit me. I almost felt it. _"Just like you vented out, I'm going to, too!"

"Alright, alright," I grumbled, patting her head. She gave me a skeptical stare.

"Don't touch me."

"Someone's being sensitive," I chuckled.

"Anyways…I've noticed that Ulquiorra's being really cold."

Once again, that blank stare from me. "Isn't that how he is all the time?"

"I know this is a really stupid question, but do you know why he's like that in the first place?"

"…Yeah, that _is_ a stupid question."

"Shouldn't have wasted my goddamn time," she walked away. I resigned to something in my head as I saw the confusion in her eyes.

"Two lefts, five right and three straight!" I yelled. She looked at me like I was crazy.

"What the fuck are you talking about?!"

"The directions to your room!"

"Oh…okay…"

"Just one more thing," I called out, more calm than before. I could swear that I saw her sigh. "I'll explain everything."

"…You mean…"

"Yeah, in four days; I promise, sis," I bowed to her while smirking playfully. When I straightened up, she was gone. "Looks like you're still not used to it, huh?"

**SEPTEMBER SEVENTH**

Nothing like a crappy morning to start your day.

Crappy way of waking up (falling off of the stupid bed and 'landing' on my head), crappy food, crappy hair (took me at least half an hour to get it the way I wanted it—don't laugh), crappy wrinkled clothes, crappy bags under my eyes, crappy food for Alexia. She wasn't that important, though.

Seemed like she had a crappy slumber. Nearly kicked my face when she was getting up. "Can you ever get up a little gracefully?" I complained.

"…If you force me to wake up there's a chance that I'll rip your fucking head off, so no."

"Today's the day, remember?"

Realizing that, she sighed loudly and reluctantly got up, rubbing her eyes and yawning. I handed her the plate with food(?) and she instantly wrinkled her face in disgust.

"What a beautiful sight to wake up to," she mumbled.

"My face? I know, right?" I smirked. She smacked my shoulder.

"Fuck you," she said.

"If we weren't related, it'd be the other way around, sis."

_Hit a nerve. Shit. Not a good way to start off the conversation._

"Thank god I am, 'cause I would never want to eat something you cooked for me, like you were my husband or something," she spat.

"Well, if you were my wife, of course I'd poison your glass of water."

"If you were my husband, I'd gladly drink it."

_Ouch_. That made me smirk. "Anyways, I'm not gonna try to piss ya off too much 'cause today's your day."

"You never really explained what you meant by that," she said.

"Ask me any question and I'll give you an answer," I answered, then saw the look she gave me and added, "A _direct_ answer, alright?"

"Lemme finish this shit first," she gave her consent. I watched as she prodded at the food, then picked parts of it out and finally put some of it up to her mouth.

"…"

"Is there a reason you're watching me eat?"

"…Not really."

She twirled her finger in the air and I smirked before looking away. Guess that was another thing we had in common: we both hated being watched. A few minutes later, she was downing the last of her water.

"Okay…what's the catch?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" I said, as if I didn't know what she was talking about.

"I've known you for long enough to know that you don't do something unless there's something in it for you."

"…Alright, so there's this one thing."

"And that is?"

I took a deep breath. "You know Auria?"

"Auria, the girl with the neon-green eyes and blond hair?"

"Yeah."

"What about her?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Don't tell her anything about what I'm going to tell you unless she asks first."

"But…," Alexia started, "what does this have to do with her?"

"Ask your first question," I changed the subject.

"Okay…how are we related?"

"Woah, straight to the point, huh?" I said nervously.

"You just told me to ask my question, dumbass," a cross-popping vein appeared on her forehead.

"Fuck, this means I'm gonna have to give you a lecture."

"We have more than enough time."

"…Okay, so…what do you remember of your childhood? Relations-wise and shit like that."

"Well, it was mom, dad, and Greg. And, you know, Alice was already…she wasn't there when I was born," she replied. "I think…there's was something mom had told me, though…"

"You have really bad memory."

"Well, I rarely ever gave a shit about what mum ever said, half of what she said were things she'd repeated about five thousand times and the other half were things that didn't even make sense!"

"Alright, alright," I laughed at her. "Did she ever tell you about an older brother that up and disappeared?"

"You've got to be kidding me."

"…"

"She had an interesting way of telling me…"

"What did she say," I groaned.

She cleared her throat and shook her head, smiling bitterly, before giving me a look that said, 'I'm only doing this for you, alright?'

"Well, the business that my family had started was getting well-known, so apparently she thought I was going to take over the industry when I was old enough. One fine day she decided to tell me all this crap about how I need to keep up a good image for the company, start my own investments and think about how I'm going to keep track of the employees' jobs and pay…it was pissing me off to no end—sorry, I'm getting carried away.

"Anyways, she signed off with a little threat." I nearly choked on nothing when she imitated her mom's voice. "'Oh, we are so thankful that you've decided to take up the business for us, dear. Besides, you don't want to end up like your imbecile of an older brother; he was so oblivious to his job as our son. Hopefully you don't follow his footsteps and try to run away…we wouldn't want you to be humiliated for the rest of your life, knowing you weren't able to escape your burden.' I was so fucking mad at her…she was so messed up. Whenever I saw her she called me 'Alice' instead of 'Alexia', as if she'd rather have the other one existing in my place. She forced me to act like 'Alice', who I'd never met."

"Seriously?" I said in disbelief.

"Yeah."

"Her voice was _that_ nasally and high pitched?"

"Shut it!" she yelled. "Besides, none of this really makes sense. I know I'm 18…and you told me you were 347. There's no logic in that."

"Aizen…," the cause of all my problems seemed to start with that bastard. The only reason for that was because he was the cause. "About forty or fifty years ago, he offered me a second life."

"That's—"

"Not possible? Apparently it was, 'cause I agreed. I was reborn as a child and had a normal life. It was freaky at first 'cause I still had the same thoughts—it was like an adult being in a baby's body. Just…fuckin' weird. But when I was older and Alice died, mom just broke down. Dad was really attached to her and I couldn't blame him, but I realized that mom was starting to do that on purpose. And she paid less attention to you, the newborn girl." I couldn't help but grin when I saw her smile a little and point a finger at herself. "I was about your age by then and had a girlfriend; she cared for you more than mom did, but mom was coming back to her senses. So…I got a little selfish."

"…And?" she asked, curious, but sounded just about as scared as I was. What was she going to think of me? God, she'd see me as more than a bastard… "Grimmjow, tell me."

"A few months after, I ran away and took Auria with me."

"Auria!?"

_Fuck, you weren't supposed to say her name, you stupid piece of shit!_

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. "Yeah, she was my girlfriend. She basically treated you like her daughter. Guess I got jealousy sprinkled on top of the selfishness."

"I thought I'd recognized her voice," she said…happily? "I can't believe that voice was her. I used to think it was mom, before she went crazy."

"That's nice."

"That's the simple way of putting it. You saw it yourself; she was on the verge of sending me to a foster home—probably even considered abandoning me somewhere."

"…Well, we didn't last long. Soon she was begging me to just go live with her family, but I wouldn't let myself be humiliated knowing that I'd failed to take care of her. Finally…" My voice cracked a little and I mentally scolded myself for it. "I took her to her house when she was asleep one night and left her a note."

"Then?" she was looking at me pitifully—_no, that isn't pity. What kind of look is that?_ Whatever it was, it gave me the courage to continue.

"I left. A few weeks later I was pretty much a dead man, and that's when Aizen took me back. My memory was wiped, but the one thing I did remember was Auria, and the feelings I had for her. I would go to the human world and walk with her, talk as if she could hear me. Your mom and dad had already assumed I was dead and put a gravestone somewhere in a public cemetery instead of the private one you guys had. She visited that grave every day for the next five years, and even though her life was moving on she was stuck in the past.

"It was later that Aizen suggested it to me: kill her. If I did, then Auria could purposely be sought out by a hollow and we'd take it from there, make her an arrancar. It was like I was living in a cave and he had a flashlight; I couldn't resist."

"You killed her," Alexia said matter-of-factly.

"…"

"Keep going," she surprised me. "You've been keeping this in for a long time, haven't you? Don't hold back."

"…I killed her in her sleep, then took her soul here and she was transformed into an arrancar. It took a few days—the whole process—you wouldn't believe how happy I was when she was finally awake. Then…when I talked to her for the first time in those years…she couldn't remember who I was." I stopped to catch my breath. "I nearly went insane. Aizen was there, too, just smiling that fucking smile of his. She didn't remember anything, except for a name: Alexia.

"Then you appeared. I was angry at first, 'cause you were annoying to no end and Auria's spirits seemed to be lifted instantly when you arrived. Then I got this crazy idea. 'If I forget about Auria by giving my mind and soul to someone else, can I get over this?'"

"You didn't remember me…" Her eyes were wide.

"After you and I had become a couple, I started having weird visions. At first it was your face, then vague memories of you as a kid, and then I slowly got all my memories back. It was too late to tell you anything by then, and I was proven right when I accidentally let it slip. On the 31st, I met Auria in Szayel's lab again and told her everything. She took it surprisingly calm and even smiled at me." I couldn't stop myself from smiling warmly at the thought of her being happy. "And here we are."

Alexia's eyes were still wide in shock. "I'm sorry," she suddenly said.

"Look, if this is about me having that kind of past then—"

"No, I meant that I'm sorry for being how I have been for the past few days! I hate when I jump to conclusions and then just assume that what I'm thinking is what actually happened."

"Heh," I smirked, earning a glare from her. "Maybe I'll forgive you, if you get down on your knees and beg."

"Hell no!" she exclaimed. "Anyways, you should have told me this sooner! You were just making it more difficult for yourself by holding all this shit in!"

"And you should ha—agh!" I was whacked with a pillow. "Fuck, do you stuff these things with bricks or something!?"

"Wow, didn't know you were that weak," she remarked coyly. That made me reach for the other pillow on her bed and chuck it at her. She just hardly dodged it, but wasn't prepared for the other one flying at her face; with a yelp, she lost her balance and fell off of the bed.

"Looks like all that training you did in the weapons room didn't do you any good!" I remarked arrogantly, grinning like a maniac as I looked down on her and—what the fuck?

_No way, that fucking painting!? I thought I destroyed it!_

There she was, holding a cutout of that ridiculous picture of me that she'd painted of me a couple days ago, in front of her face—the one that she'd painted a mustache, hat, unibrow, beard and monocle on. I burst out laughing at the same time she did.

"Oh my god!" she let out the most girly laugh I'd ever heard from her. "I can't believe…"

"Haha, what?" I asked.

"Do you remember your name, when you got your second life?"

"Fuck, don't remind me," I tried to change the subject, "so, uh, do you—"

"B-but it's just really strange! That name doesn't fit your personality at all…"

"Don't you dare say it…"

"Aw, don't be so sensitive…Charlie."

"Damn it, don't say it! It's so stupid—" I laughed again. "Ugh, sounds like a wimpy ass name."

"Mom certainly didn't have a thing for names," she agreed. Suddenly, her expression became softer and thoughtful. "I have one more question."

Shit, what now?

"Why do you hate Ulquiorra so much?" she continued. "I mean, he tells you off and shit but you seem to be affected by it more than the other espada."

"Would you believe me if I told you that he used to be a nice person?" I got rewarded with a punch to my shoulder. "It's true, though; when he first arrived here, he acted like a shy kid. Looked like it, too."

"So…"

"We became friends."

Alexia somehow pulled off a perfect poker face.

"And now you hate each other?" she said more than asked.

"Well, he officially joined the gang about fifty years ago, which was around ten years before I got a second life. So, we were pretty much together all the time, but when I came back afterwards, he was the complete opposite of before. That and he'd gotten ranked as the fourth while I was gone."

"You're more concerned about the latter, aren't you…," Alexia sweat dropped.

"But I swear, it was like we were brothers," I continued. "Something happened to him. I just wish he would've gone back to how he was before." With that, I got up and settled the box in my hands on her dresser. "If you get sick or something, just look for medicine in here."

"Hm?" She craned her head around and saw the box. "Okay…hey, what's today's date?"

"September seventh."

Her eyes widened. "Oh."

"Why, are you planning to do something?" I asked.

"Not really…"

"See ya later," I brushed it off and made my way to the door. When I looked over my shoulder as I opened the door, she was biting her bottom lip. Why was today such an important day?

Once I closed the door behind me, I was greeted by Ilfort. "You guys are all free today, right?" I asked him.

"I've confirmed with everyone; they're all pretty excited about going."

"Good, we can't have anyone slacking."

**FOURTEEN HOURS LATER**

"Where the hell is D-Roy?!" I shouted. _Damn, if we don't open a garganta soon someone's going to notice us…_

"I saw him in the hallways not too long ago," Edorad tried to calm me.

"Right, D-Roy isn't one to skip out on events like these," Shawlong said. "Ah, here's Nakim."

"S-sorry I'm late," Nakim mumbled and hastily bowed to me. "D-Roy isn't far behind, he was arguing with a girl."

"Alexia?" I groaned.

"Hell yeah!" D-Roy suddenly appeared in front of us, panting. "Freakin' bitch almost nailed me to the floor!"

The look I sent him made his skin turn pale.

I started, "Alright, let's get a move on—"

"Grimmjow!"

_Fuck. Alexia!?_

Sure enough, there she was: running towards us. "Damn it, D-Roy, why didn't you lock her in a room somewhere!?" I glared at him. None of these bastards knew how to do things right; Shawlong was the most reasonable, and even he had his moments. Sighing loudly and firing a cero into the sky in rage (which made Alexia stop in her tracks), I sonidoed over to her and turned her around, steering her in the opposite direction.

"Grimmjow, don't tell me you're—"

"No matter what you say, I'm not letting you go with me!" I answered.

"Don't go!"

_Wait._

_ What?_

"You're crazy," I laughed and pushed her back, then turned my back on her.

"Hey!"

"What?!" I exclaimed. When I turned around to look at her again, I saw her swing her arm at me; then I felt a sting in my eyes and I instantly closed them. "You bitch! Did you just throw sand at me!?"

"I'm telling you not to go!"

Rubbing my eyes, I finally managed to open them a bit and glare at her. I sighed again and put a hand in my pocket, feeling the minuscule box. Caja negación. _Should I use it for her? But who knows when she'd get out. Plus…it'll be my fault if she never gets out. She isn't like us._

Instead, I patted her head, smiling at her. Must've looked pathetic with my watery eyes.

"Don't worry," I assured her. "No one can kill the king."

She opened her mouth, then closed it again. She suddenly thought her feet looked fascinating. We were there a few more seconds, but I wasn't one for sappy moments and walked away, not looking back.

"Hey Grimmjow, are you crying?" D-Roy asked.

"Shut up."

*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*

Unbr0ken: T_T You purposefully started the chapter there so you wouldn't have to answer my question?

Me: ^_^' You know me too well…

Unbr0ken: No, you just made it painfully obvious.

Grimmjow: I'm such a badass in this chapter :D

Alexia: At least our relationship is explained now -.-

Me: What do you mean, 'at least'?

Unbr0ken: Oh, right! I heard that Ulquiorra's based on an actual person in the world that looks a lot like him, with the same personality and everything.

Alexia: O.O

Me: W-wha…

Unbr0ken: Yep. And he lives somewhere near Chicago, too…

Me: O.O Omg I need to pay attention to the people around me, who knows when I might see him…I should carry my camera with me at all times…

Unbr0ken: ^_^ You know what else?

Alexia and I: What!?

Unbr0ken: That was a lie :D

(Silence)

Me: Uwaaah! TT_TT You're so cruel!

Alexia: (Hugs Alexia) There, there, you should be used to this by now…;-; That was pretty salty, though.

Unbr0ken: XD Do you have any idea how many times I've done this before?

Grimmjow: That was good, even I wouldn't have thought of that (Goes behind Unbr0ken and wraps his arms around Unbr0ken's shoulders)

Unbr0ken: Man, I should do this more often ^_^


	19. Pathetic, Much?

Unbr0ken: (Looking in a mirror)

Me: What are you doing?

Alexia: T_T Checking yourself out? Again?

Unbr0ken: ;-; Not exactly…I've just been wondering…

Alexia and I: What?

Unbr0ken: I know I'm a fit person and everything, but…I mean, if I compare myself to Grimmjow…

Grimmjow: -.- Uh…

Unbr0ken: I don't know why I can't be as muscular as he is! I mean, come on (points to Grimmjow's abs) I refuse to believe that he's—uh, I mean…

Alexia: I'm not all that impressed by them T_T

Grimmjow: Hey!

Me: Grimmjow is _Grimmjow_, he has, like, a twelve pack O.o you're fine just the way you are.

Unbr0ken: Still, I refuse to believe that he's…

Me: What?

Grimmjow: (smirks) I think I know where this is going…

Unbr0ken: (mumbles)

Alexia: What?

Unbr0ken: (continues to mumble) …than me…

Everyone except Unbr0ken: WHAT!?

Unbr0ken: I REFUSE TO ACCEPT THE FACT THAT HE'S HOTTER THAN ME!

Everyone: O.O

Unbr0ken: Uh…fuck… (hides behind Grimmjow) Just start the damn chapter.

**SEPTEMBER SEVENTH, PART TWO**

"Dammit…dammit!"

I paced around my room. It had nearly been an hour since Grimmjow had left. _If that's accurate, then it's nighttime right now_…I yelled something incoherent and punched my pillow. So pathetic.

I'd tried to change things when we were in the World of the Living. Yeah. Big fail. The only thing that had happened to me was my realizing that I could set off a completely different chain of events that would be either good or bad—and retreating so I wouldn't get hurt.

Now I'd thrown sand at Grimmjow's face to try and prevent him from going to fight Ichigo. Things were just going downhill from there. I felt like I would set off an atomic bomb if I tried to interfere. Strange considering I wasn't that influential.

Urahara and Yoruichi had acted like they'd seen me before. Had they? As it was, I couldn't even remember how I'd gotten here—just tiny little bits and pieces. I was walking home from school the day I'd disappeared from the face of the human world. I recalled showing up in several places in recent times, most of them in Soul Society. They were just flashes; on Sokyoku hill, the captains' meeting room, even in the tower where Rukia had been in two weeks before her initial execution. Why I'd been there, I didn't know. Maybe they'd seen me when I'd appeared in those places, but I was pretty sure that no one ever saw me. And somehow…I'd ended up here permanently. It was like I was reading a story and all of a sudden realizing a handful of pages had been ripped out. What the hell was going on?

"Feka!" I called out. She was under the bed this time. I heard her meow lazily before her head popped out, followed by her two front paws and then the rest of her body. "Hey. You must be lucky, not having to deal with all the stuff people like us have to figure out. Your life is so simple…"

"_Mrow_."

I laughed a little. "Ah…what am I doing, sulking?" The words repeated in my head and made me smile at my own actions. Resigning to not worry about it so much, I hopped up from the bed and stretched, my back giving a satisfying crack. All this could wait for later—now was the time to think about the present.

Feeling a bit artistic, I decided to draw. In about an hour, I had my own self-portrait. Analyzing it, I saw how my arms seemed fragile and my whole figure in general looked weak. How was I going to do anything in the war with this kind of strength? I felt goosebumps on my arms and decided to out on a sweater; a royal blue pullover hoodie with pockets. I struggled to put my head through and even more to get my arms through. In the end, I nearly collapsed from the effort I'd made.

_Just how pathetic can I get?_ I asked myself while looking in the mirror. _I just wasted all my energy putting on a sweater._

Scratching Feka's ears in a see-you-later way, I left. The compass was going in circles when I opened it up. _Where to go…guess it doesn't matter as long as I eventually make my way back. How can I vent out all this stuff about strength…_

I had a feeling that visiting Halibel wouldn't be a good idea with what had happened to Sun-sun. Barragan was out of the question, although Ggio didn't seem as stuck-up as him and his fracciòn. That only left Stark and Lilinette. Nothing strange or disagreeable about them. Guess that was where I was heading.

But the compass had other plans, apparently. It pointed south, then went counterclockwise to the north, then repeated that pattern. The question was…well, questions were: where was I supposed to go, and why was the compass doing that?

I decided to walk in any direction to see if the compass would go back to normal; it pointed to the north, but still went to the south even though the north seemed more prominent. Setting into a small jog, I set off to the north. As I progressed, it directed me north for the most part but occasionally shifted a bit to the east or west.

Then it pointed directly to the south and never went north.

_What. The. Hell._

"Great…," I mumbled, turning and going off in the opposite direction. The same thing happened: I headed south and after a while it directed me north. It came to the point where I was running through the corridors only to have to do a one-eighty and go there, then have the process repeated as if I was chasing after something that wasn't there.

"Hey!" I heard a female voice shout. That voice…Lilinette?

On cue, she came sprinting in this direction, out of breath and stumbling along the way.

"Hey, you!" she said again.

"Y-yeah…?" I responded hesitantly.

"Have you seen Stark around here? The stupid jerk wasn't in his room…"

"Stark…," I started. "I can't believe…"

"What?" she asked.

"He's not sleeping?"

She sighed exasperatedly. "For once, no. I saw him leave and tried to go after him but he disappeared."

_That's why the compass is changing directions so frequently_, I realized. On top of Stark's actual soul being parted in two—him and Lilinette—they were both apart at the moment, which meant that I had two choices on where to go. That and they were still moving around every which way.

"Why don't we look for him together?" I suggested with a playful smile. She regarded me with narrowed eyes, then broke out in a grin and nodded. I showed her the compass and then explained how to use it.

"So I just think of where I want to go and it'll take me there, huh?" she said excitedly.

"Yeah. So, we're going to find Stark, right?" I asked, waiting for her to agree so the compass could direct us.

"Nope!" she grinned even more than before. _Wait…what?_ "I wanna go explore!" She pouted and crossed her arms. "Stark never lets me go out without him but he gets to go wherever he wants all the time! Well, I'm not just gonna stand by and let that jerk run free, I'm gonna go wherever I want, too!"

"The whole point was to find Stark, Lili," I nicknamed her. She rolled her eyes and shrugged. "Come on."

"Fine," she sighed. "We're gonna find Stark."

The compass immediately spun in a few circles before settling somewhere in the north-north-east. We took off in a run and the compass starting spinning again when we reached our destination. It looked like a vacant room, but Lilinette seemed to recognize the place. A tinge of bitterness and a smidge of sadness showed on her face, but she quickly replaced it with another grin and shoved the door open.

"Staaaaark!" she yelled, jumping onto his shoulder. His back was facing us as he stumbled forward from the force she'd pushed onto him. "You jerk! You left without me, why are you here and how—mmrphrmptr!" She continued to struggle even as he gave a tired sigh and covered her mouth with his hand.

"Sorry if she caused trouble for you," Stark apologized.

"Don't worry about it, she didn't," I replied, walking into the room. It was a room very much like the one Orihime was going to stay in once they'd capture her and bring her here, window and all. The thought sent a bitter taste in my mouth.

Once Stark realized Lilinette had fallen asleep in his arms, he blinked a few times in surprise before yawning and hoisting her over his shoulder. "Geez, when one of us isn't sleeping the other is." As he left the room, he beckoned me out with him. "You planning to stay in there all night?"

We left and he went to his room. Deciding I didn't have anything better to do (and I was trying to remember why I was looking for him in the first place), I followed him silently. He wasn't one to talk and I wasn't the best at initiating conversations so we ended up not talking to each other at all.

At his room, he went inside and I found myself awkwardly standing in front of his door. Just as quickly as he had went inside, his head poked out from the door and made me jump. "Ah, sorry. I wasn't sure if—"

"You act a lot weirder than I thought," he voiced; I wasn't sure what to make of his comment. "Just come inside, you can leave when I fall asleep again."

"…Sure…," I shrugged and went inside. The walls were painted a warm golden-brown color; a couch and one king size bed were to the right, on the perimeter of the walls. On the left, there were two doors—one was probably the bathroom, the other a closet like Grimmjow's. The back of the room seemed abandoned, nothing was there except for a small table with two chairs pulled up to it.

"Interesting?" Stark asked.

"Curious," I corrected half-heartedly. "I thought the only thing here would be a bed."

"He was going to give away all the other stuff in this room," started Lilinette, "but I stopped him. For Las Noches's sake, he doesn't have any common sense when it comes to what he wants and what he _needs_."

For a few moments, we didn't talk. Lilinette went over to the bed and started jumping, only getting a bored look from Stark as punishment. Stark himself flopped down onto his couch; his eyes immediately closed and I thought that he was already asleep.

"Um…," I started.

"So, why are you here in the first place?" Stark asked, surprising me. "We aren't that fun to hang out with, you know."

"What do you mean, Stark!?" exclaimed Lilinette while she still jumped on the bed. "You're no fun, but I'm awesome! I don't spend my whole day sleeping! Just 'cause we're really powerful doesn't mean that we're both boring people!"

I didn't see how strength related to what your rank was on the fun-o-meter.

Then it all clicked. _Oh yeah, that's what I was going to do…_

"Hey, Stark?" I called out.

"I'm listening."

"How did you get so much power?" I asked. For the most part, I knew his backstory: he'd once been a single entity, so powerful that all the other hollows around him would die because they couldn't withstand it. Somehow, he'd split himself in two and abracadabra: Coyote Stark and Lilinette Gingerback.

"I'm not completely sure," he admitted. "I know that I was really weak at the start."

This caught my attention instantly.

"Lots of hollows targeted us but somehow we were able to either escape from them or kill them. Of course, the former happened more at first. I guess it was instinct to survive."

"Instinct…," I said. That was it? I'd been acting instinctively a lot, lately, but I didn't see myself any stronger than how I was at the moment.

"Seems a bit hard to believe," he yawned, "but that's the only explanation I can think of. There's this gap in my memory; something happened when I was getting stronger, but I can't remember what it was or what it felt like. Sorry to disappoint you."

"It's alright, really," I said a bit sorrowfully. "I was just thinking…"

"You want to get stronger?"

"…Yeah," I complied. "I've trained a little, but it's not making that much of an effect."

"Well…," Stark yawned again and covered his eyes with his arm. When he didn't answer an awkward silence settled in and I realized he'd fallen asleep.

"Uh…"

"Just stick your finger down his throat!" Lilinette encouraged while doing a backflip on the bed. "It works every time!"

"…"

She understood my silence and giggled before jumping off of the bed with a thud and sticking her had down his throat so quickly I would've missed it if I'd blinked.

_Woah. This is too sudden…_

"Gah!" Stark immediately shot up, gripping his throat and coughing, glaring at Lilinette. "Why, you…"

"You forgot about her!" Lilinette pointed a finger at me.

"Oh, so you're still here."

_Apparently._

"Yeah, um, if you're planning on sleeping some more then I can just come back later or something," I suggested.

"S'alright," he sifted a hand through his shoulder-length brown hair. "I was just gonna say that you should keep training. Don't stop because you don't see yourself making progress."

It was as if his words were magic; when I saw it from that perspective it did seem like I was judging myself too harshly. Giving up at the beginning wasn't going to make me stronger. If only I'd thought about it more simply; here I was, thinking I wasn't getting anywhere when I'd only trained what, two times? Three? I couldn't even remember anymore.

"Thank you, Stark," I smiled and bid him farewell with a wave of my hand. "You too, Lili."

"See ya later!" Lilinette answered.

Stark had a thoughtful look on his face and for a moment I was thinking that he'd learnt to sleep with his eyes open; but he eventually looked over at me and said, "Just remember that strength isn't always a blessing, alright?"

I smiled at him even though I was a bit bothered by his words. "I'll remember." Softly closing the door, I started down the hall.

_When was the last time I've felt this confident in myself?_ I thought. _Lately I've been looking down on myself and always thinking I amn't going to get anywhere here. Guess mom and dad's words from back then are coming back to me…_

_** 'Since when were you ever a benefit in our lives, Alexia?'**_

_** 'I'm your daughter…you'd think that you'd try to raise me better…'**_

_** 'We're not going to be watching you all the time! Damn it, why couldn't you be more like Alice? She was always responsible and—'**_

_** 'I'm Alexia. Not Alice.'**_

_** 'Alice is our daughter. You are not.'**_

_** 'And I'm glad for it.'**_

The scene played out in my mind like a movie: my mother, father and I sitting at the round kitchen table. My mother's gaze fixated on me at all times, my father with a look that told me he didn't necessarily care about what was happening. Greg, my younger brother by ten years, was playing around in the room next to us. It was the day they'd decided to tell me that I wasn't being of any use and therefore had to disown me. My aunt was on her way to the house and, had she gotten there earlier, might've prevented my mother from slapping me when I'd said I was glad I wasn't their daughter anymore.

To tell the truth, I really didn't know what I'd wanted to do with my life after high school. Of course I'd go to college, but my parents wanted me to skip and get started on the company's sales, keeping track of them/ordering more products. Whatever the hell they did. Problem was, I wanted to go to an art school and see if I'd be interested in something there. Life as a musician, artist or anything in the realm of arts was a career that was more or less a gamble, but if I did make it I'd be more relaxed knowing it was something I'd enjoy doing.

My aunt wasn't one to push expectations—ironic, seeing as how she was the one who had been the most successful in the family at a young age. She and I were close, even with the fact that she lived in America, and I in Great Britain. She'd taken me in immediately, which I had taken as something to be ashamed of. To think I was that useless…I'd had my stupid moments when I was young as well, it wasn't as if I was perfect. I was human.

Humans could not be perfect, but they could change.

From then, I'd desperately tried to change, even though my age implied that it would be a bit difficult—fourteen, an age which I'd had a habit of concentrating on one thing at a time and not thinking of outcomes or alternatives.

_And…now I'm here,_ I concluded. My thoughts were going in circles. _Where am I?_

The hallway was dark, illuminated by a dim candle light some fifty feet away. Sighing, I took out the compass and directed myself to Szayel's lab. I had a schedule for the next few hours that I didn't want to be late for.

Szayel didn't know of this schedule, of course, so when I arrived there I wasn't surprised that he didn't answer the door right away. In fact, he took a while in getting there—so long that I fell asleep next to the entrance to the lab waiting for him.

"Alexia? What in Hueco Mundo are you doing here?" Szayel shook my shoulder and I opened my eyes groggily. "It's near midnight."

"I…need to tell you something," I said while rubbing my eyes. Once I'd gotten on my feet, with his help, we both went inside.

"Is what you're going to tell me really this important?" Szayel asked, handing me a glass of water. I took a long gulp of it before answering him.

"It's about when I went to the World of the Living…," I started hesitantly. Some of my resolve was beginning to fade away, but the encouraging look that Szayel gave me convinced me to continue. "When we were there, I thought that there would be a big commotion. Obviously there was, but what I mean is…well, they couldn't see Ulquiorra and Yammy, but I'm human. They would be able to see me, right? And then they'd ask me tons of questions—the rest of the people there, you know.

"But…no one did. All of the humans acted the sa—" I stopped myself from what I was going to say: 'the same as they were supposed to', "—indifferently. As if I wasn't there in the first place. The only ones who did see me were, er, the girl with the long hair and the tall, tan guy. Ichigo might've seen me if he were paying more attention, but Kisuke Urahara and Yoruichi Shihoin definitely noticed me. I'm not sure what the black-haired girl saw, but I don't think she saw me. What I'm trying to say is…"

"Normal humans can't see you?" he asked surprisedly.

I nodded wordlessly, my hands cold to the touch. "Do you think you could make me a marioneta? I know it's strange, but—"

"Don't worry about it," he smiled…somewhat forcedly. "I can make one, I just need to take a few measurements." As if he knew this was going to happen a long time ago, he pulled out a measuring tape and started taking the necessary measurements. In a few minutes, he had a hologram of the soon-to-be fake me structured on his clipboard. "May I ask why exactly you need one?"

"I'm going to ask Aizen to let me go to the World of the Living."

"What?"

"Yeah," I said. Even I was a bit surprised at my own forwardness. "I want to be out more. If I have to stay here for a long amount of time I don't want to have to be stuck here all the time. No offense, but I'll eventually get bored of this place if I have to see it every day. I am a human."

"Yes, I understand," he smiled as he made some changes to the mannequin. "Is there any one human who will suspect you of being dead or missing?"

Damn, I'd thought about that before, but not now.

"I don't know. I'm not even sure how long it's been since I came here from my world," I admitted solemnly. "But regardless of that, I still want to go to the World of the Living. If I get caught as a supposedly dead person then I can just fake my death and leave."

"…I guess so," he finally agreed a few seconds later. "The mannequin will be done within the next few days, so you should get some sleep."

"No."

He blinked a few times. "What?"

"I need to talk to Aizen today," I said, "even if it's the middle of the night. Besides, there are a few things I want to ask him…"

Thankfully Szayel didn't press the matter further, because the last part was a lie; I didn't know what I was going to do.

With the absence of the watch that I used to wear, I had no way of telling what time it was; from what Szayel had previously implied it was already getting pretty late, though. After finishing the water he'd given me, I left.

As I found out, there were too many places to go to and my patience only lasted so long. I'd been to several meeting rooms (seven, if I counted correctly), a few other places I hadn't even known existed but none of the places I went to lead me to Aizen.

Maybe it was a hunch or something—that something probably being my impatience—that made me stop using the compass. Instead I just walked around, hoping that I'd find my way soon enough. As if my imaginary sixth sense actually existed.

It was a moment where I'd wished that chick's voice in my head would come out and talk to me, but she hadn't appeared since Grimmjow's confession. I had the strange feeling that she might've been hiding something from me.

Something besides her name, who she was, why she existed and how.

A strange throb in my chest made me stop. It wasn't one triggered by feelings; maybe the feeling of a fever was starting to creep up on me. Although I felt better, the slightly heated feeling was still there, then would change to goosebumps.

_Maybe this isn't a good idea._

_ It is._

_ I should wait till tomorrow._

_ Now or never._

I couldn't convince myself of either, leaving me to ponder over my choices. Taking a deep breath, I took out the compass and turned it over, looking at my reflection in the shiny silver.

"You've already decided not to go to sleep," I started, "You told Szayel that you were going to confront Aizen, a few questions and requests are not going to kill you, you've gotten lost looking for him so don't think you can just back out of this, Alexia!"

"Eh?" A playful voice snapped my out of my self-lecture and I quickly composed myself—as much as I could after being caught talking to myself. "What're ya doin' 'ere, A~lex?"

"Hey, Gin," waved at him in a you-did-not-just-see-me-talking-to-a-compass way. "Just, er, well…I was looking for someone, but I can't seem to find them so I ju—oh. So you're here, too."

"What are you doing at this hour, Alexia?" Aizen greeted, coming forward to take my hand. I stared at it skeptically before hesitantly putting my hand in his, expecting to black out. All he did was shake if firmly before letting go; My hand dropped like dead weight when he let it go.

"I w-was looking for you, Aizen," I stuttered a bit and mentally hit myself on the head for it. "There are a few things I'd like to ask you, if it's all right."

"Follow me," he commanded. For a while I stood, then heeded him and followed, Gin behind me. A thought appeared in my mind but when I paid attention to it I completely forgot what it was. Weird.

We arrived at a meeting room I was sure I'd been to before and went in, the firelight slightly brighter as we made our way farther inside. "Take a seat," Aizen told us. Or commanded. Whichever it was, it didn't stop me from obeying him. If I wanted to get my requests accepted I'd have to not get on his bad side, which happened more often than not.

"S'nice ta see ya enjoyin' Las Noches," Gin commented to break the ice. It was pretty thick, but he cut it completely in half and made it seem like this was a just a playdate with friends and not a conversation with a man who intended to kill the Soul king and become a god.

In the end, logic won and I was still wary.

"I'd like to ask you…if I can go to the World of the Living on a regular basis," I somehow managed to say all of that without losing my train of thought; that was what usually happened when I asked for something that I really wanted. I wasn't normally the type to ask for things unless I really wanted them.

"You already know all the quirks of that kind of request, I suppose?" Aizen asked. Nodding in response, he answered for me. "Someone may recognize you; I'm not intending for you to go alone—"

Did that mean he was going to let me?

"—so whomever goes with you also has to mask their spiritual power. We are on the brink of war. We do not have time to do such trivial things."

Maybe not.

"Your spiritual pressures can be masked with a marioneta, right? There's a quick solution to that," I countered hastily. "I'll just fake my death when someone recognizes me. And I don't think that you guys are that busy preparing for war."

"…She 'as a point, Aizen." We both turned to stare at Gin. "What? S'true; we're not really busy, ne? I haven't noticed."

"It's not going to be something daily or every other day," I said. "Maybe once a week?"

"And when do you suppose you want to initiate this?" Aizen said after a few moments of silence.

"Four days," I answered with certainty. "Who…or…well, how many people will have to go with me?"

"Just one person is enough to keep an eye on you, I suppose?"

I nodded. He seemed willing to go through with my idea; which made me think that there had to be a catch. It was Aizen we were talking about. "Who…"

"You may choose."

Too willing.

I chose to play along.

"Ulquiorra."

"That's fine."

_…What do I do now?_

"…Uh—"

"Alexia, you seem to be getting attached to him lately," he interrupted. "I'd like to remind you that we are currently in preparation for war, as is he."

"That much is obvious," I let a little of my anger show.

"All you need to remember is that, at any time, he could fail in his duties. The only method he can fail by is dying."

_Oh. So this was it._

"If that's so, then I want to spend as much time with him as possible before something like that can happen," I answered sternly, more ire rising up in me.

"You have special feelings for him, do you not?"

_ I was that obvious…?_ Now that I'd thought about it, I really was. Always paying more attention to him—not in a bad way—and defending him. It was pathetic of me to be oblivious to my own actions.

"It doesn't matter if I do or don't…," I mumbled, knowing fully that it wasn't true.

"I think it does," Aizen countered. "Otherwise we could have you be accompanied by Nnoitora."

Even though I knew Nnoitora wasn't necessarily after me anymore I still got a disgusting chill up my spine.

"Why should you be concerned whether I take a liking to him or not?" I asked.

"Because things may get quite interesting if we let things play out; after all, he is inept to emotion."

Bastard.

"This isn't a game, please take it seriously."

"Perhaps if you pay me more respect I shall, and if not I'm sure that we can just get someone else to take the blow."

"What?" I said incredulously.

"If we need to get rid of your feelings it wouldn't be technically correct to destroy the source of your feelings, therefore—"

"You won't lay a fucking hair on him," I sprang out of my seat. "Just because he obeys you like a puppy doesn't mean you should take advantage of that."

Gin raised an eyebrow at me. "Oi, ya do like 'im as more than a friend, dontcha?"

"Like I said, if I do I do and if I don't I don't. What matters is that you don't hurt him because of me," my voice came out a bit shaky at what I said. "And even if I didn't like him, don't hurt him…"

Too much.

"You know, I ordered Ulquiorra to come to my quarters a while ago; he should be arriving any second now. I wonder what he would do if I told him about your infatuation," Aizen smiled, resting his head on the back of his hand. "Surely he'd dismiss the matter, just as coldly as rejection."

"This isn't the pressing matter," I said firmly, swallowing my anger and sitting back down. "Can I go or not? I don't care if you do it for your own enjoyment."

"Yes."

"Good."

"Aw, da fight's o'er already?" Gin, if possible, grinned even wider. "Tha's no fun…"

"We can't always get what we want," Aizen replied while gazing at me, which I supposed had a hidden meaning behind it. Whatever it was, I never figured it out. I was supposed to find answers to a few questions I had.

"Do I have to turn into an arrancar in order to assist you in the war?" I asked. This was more middle-grounded for me; the reason being because I really didn't know if I wanted to be an arrancar. The benefits and consequences seemed to balance out, leaving it at a "which do you want" question. Not something logical, which I was more comfortable with. Logical questions always gave you a solid answer.

"How do you expect to help us in your current state?" Aizen answered with a question. "A human with no powers other than a sliver of spiritual power cannot possibly contribute to the army. If anything you'd only cause a hindrance."

Remaining silent, I only sighed. In that moment, Gin got up from his seat and looked at Aizen. "Ah, yes. Go tell Ulquiorra to meet me at dawn so we may discuss his new schedule."

"Sure thin', Capt'n Aizen~" Gin said playfully as he walked out of the room. As if I wasn't there, Aizen got out of his seat and sonidoed to one of his many thrones.

Reluctantly, I also got up and followed—or tried to. A wall shot up some fifteen feet in the air in front of me, where Aizen was. All I could do was look up at him, which gave me a sense of submission. He really put some thought into the architecture of this place.

A panel materialized out of thin air in front of Aizen, making me blink a few times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. "Tôsen, how is everything?" Aizen inquired.

"Not exactly good," Tôsen replied. "All five of Grimmjow's fracciones are dead. Grimmjow was near the point of killing Ichigo Kurosaki."

_Oh no. Was this happening? Well, I should've seen it coming. But now, of all times?!_

"We're near the exit now," Tôsen continued, "we should be there shortly."

On cue, the panel disappeared and a garganta opened in front of me, revealing Tôsen and a pissed-off Grimmjow. Both of their backs were to me, and no one except Aizen seemed to notice my presence. Even though I didn't have a front view of Grimmjow, I could already imagine the blood going down the left side of his face and the diagonal scar across his chest that Ichigo had given him.

"Welcome back, Grimmjow," Aizen greeted them. Grimmjow remained quiet, but I knew Tôsen would say something about that.

"What's wrong?" Tôsen, as predicted, asked. "Isn't there something you should be apologizing for?"

Grimmjow didn't waste any time in answering. "Nope."

"You ingrate…"

"Don't worry, Kaname," Aizen interrupted their mini-argument. "After all, it's not as if I'm angry with him. The way I can see it, he was only trying to do me a favor and got a bit carried away. Or—" he hesitated, looking Grimmjow in the eyes, "—am I mistaken?"

All he received in response at first was a glare.

"Grimmjow."

After what seemed like an eternity, Grimmjow's expression turned neutral an he finally answered. "Yeah. You're mistaken."

In a flash, Tôsen's hand shot out and gripped the front of Grimmjow's neck in a silent message that Grimmjow didn't seem to get. "What the hell's with you?" he continued to speak, staring at Tôsen boredly out of the corner of his eyes. As if Tôsen could see Grimmjow in front of him, he narrowed his eyes for a second before turning to Aizen.

"Lord Aizen, I am requesting permission to execute him!" he said almost pleadingly.

"Kaname…"

Grimmjow forced himself out of Tôsen's grasp, smirking at him. "The way I see it, you just hate me; that's all there is to it. You sure it's okay for a commanding officer to talk like that?"

"I have no tolerance for those who seek to cause discord. That is all there is to it," Tôsen replied.

"For the sake of our little group?"

"For Lord Aizen's sake."

Grimmjow gave a laugh and turned away as if it was painful to look at him. "Ya never miss a chance to talk about your moral bullshit, do ya?"

"Of course not," Tôsen agreed, completely dismissing the sarcasm. "My actions are based on my morals—something which you lack." He put a hand on the hilt of his zanpakuto. "Without a cause behind it, justice is nothing more than a slaughter."

_Stop him. Alexia, stop him from…_

"But slaughter in the name of that higher cause—"

My voice got stuck in my throat as I heard a tearing sound—tearing through flesh—and seconds later, Grimmjow's left arm was in the air, hurling towards me. The blood flowing from his amputated arm continued to flow and…

A few drops of it landed on my cheek.

"Is justice," Tôsen finished.

I could hear Grimmjow crying out in agony, but it seemed distant, as if he was a thousand miles away. A shaky hand touched the places where it had landed and came back smeared with crimson. Instead of making me feel uncomfortable or scared, a only got angry with myself. _You could've stopped this_.

"Hadou 54: Haien!" Tôsen said, a flame shooting out and incinerating Grimmjow's arm. The sounds all came back to me.

"Dammit…," Grimmjow panted, "…shit…You…I'll fucking kill you!" He reached for Pantera with his right arm and in that moment, Aizen finally interrupted.

"Don't make a move, Grimmjow," he said calmly, but his expression was hardcore instead of that stupid smile. "If you try to kill Kaname here, I'm afraid that we won't be able to let you out of this place alive."

It was an intense staring contest between Grimmjow and Aizen. I don't know how long they just looked at each other with equal looks of hate, but Grimmjow eventually gave up and spun around with a "Tch!"

That's when he saw me. His eyes widened so much I thought they might have fallen out of their sockets. "Alexia…what the hell are you doing here!?" His expression grew exasperated and he let out a loud sigh, storming out and grabbing my arm on the way out.

"Grimmjow, hey!" I exclaimed, but he didn't even turn around. "Grimmjow!"

"What do you think you were doing there!?" he suddenly turned around. "Were you off telling him that I'd gone to the human world?!"

"What would make you think I'd tell him!?"

"You go to whatever lengths you have to in order to get what you want!"

"How do you know that!?"

"I'm your brother!"

"So what!?"

I immediately regretted saying that last part. He glared at me, then let go of my arm and walked away. Running after him, I called out and tried to stop him but he continued to ignore me.

"Damn…" I facepalmed and walked without him, taking out the compass to guide me to my room. That was enough action for one day. All I wanted to do was wash my face and fall like a brick. "I wonder…"

"What?"

I spun around to see Grimmjow behind me. "I thought you were pissed at me."

"I am. But I need to talk to you."

Great, I could already see what he was going to ask. 'How did you know that my arm was gonna get chopped off? Why did you go see Aizen? He didn't hurt you, did he?'

"As I said, I know things that you don't; no, he didn't hurt me and I went because I wanted to ask him some stuff," I replied to the questions myself, temporarily smiling at his half-shocked reaction. "Now…I'm sorry about what I said."

"I was sort of angry at you for no reason," Grimmjow scratched the back of his neck with his arm. I stared at where his other arm was supposed to be.

"Doesn't that hurt?"

"Well, I guess you get used to the pain after a while."

"…"

"What?"

"It's nothing," I dismissed his question with a nonchalant wave of my hand. "Anyway, it's getting a bit late. I think I'll go to sleep now…"

"Let's go," he smiled sadly. We didn't talk to one another on the way to my room, but it didn't seem like something awkward. It was a thoughtful type of silence that I liked.

When at the door, he gave me a hug. It was strange; he was only half embracing me. Even though I knew I should've been getting inside, I hugged him back tightly—making sure not to touch his scar—and we stayed like that for a few minutes.

"I should've listened to you," Grimmjow murmured.

"It wouldn't have made a difference," I defended him. "When it comes to battle you'll jump at the opportunity, no matter how stupid it is."

"They're going to take away my rank."

"I know."

"How did you…nevermind."

I laughed a little and let go of him. "Goodnight. Try not to think about it too much." I opened the door and was about to close it when he put his hand on the door and held it there.

"What did you ask Aizen?"

"I'm going to the human world soon," I said half-happily. "I compromised with him." _Sort of._

"Don't tell me you told him that you'd become an arrancar."

"No." That seemed to lift a burden off his shoulders. "Why are you so concerned by it?"

"I just want you to stay as you are," he answered, ruffling my hair. "Go to sleep, you're probably as sleepy as a lion right now." As if he was saying a spell, the drowsiness I'd been fighting came at me full force and I nodded before closing the door quietly and going to sleep before I could change clothes.

September eleventh, huh? I'd almost forgotten what that day was to me.

_**[BLEACH]**_

Me: So yeah, apparently Grimmjow's going to be giving Unbr0ken some critical workout sessions now so he can also have a twelve-pack T_T…

Alexia: And no one's watching them?

Me: No T_T

Alexia: They could be…

Me: -_- No.

Alexia: (smirks) Aw, is your inner yaoi fangirl emerging?

Me: T_T I think that Unbr0ken might've been a little too lenient on the whole idea…

[Ten minutes ago]

Grimmjow: (Looks at Unbr0ken hiding behind him) well, if you want I can give you some training or something…

Unbr0ken: O.O really!? You'd do that for me!?

Me: You're being awfully generous to him.

Alexia: You better not make him just swing at your arm all day T_T (rubs arms) they're still a little sore.

Grimmjow: Don't worry ^_^ Unbr0ken's a lot more fun to work with.

Unbr0ken: (Hugs Grimmjow tightly from behind) Thank you, Grimmjow! You're a lifesaver!

Grimmjow: Hey…(sweat drops) he's already pretty strong…

Unbr0ken: Uh, no, I'm not! I'm actually really weak and need to have someone teach me how to get fit, like you! Really!

Alexia: Did he have this all planned?

Unbr0ken: T_T Does it look like I have a six-pack?

Me: No…

Unbr0ken: Exactly (Hugs Grimmjow tighter)

Additional stuff :3

~KillingDesire is now Unbr0ken~ Yep, he changed his username ^_^ so don't start thinking I changed the person I dedicated it to -.- that'd just be mean.

~Ulquiorra's song~ A few days ago a fellow follower PMed me with a song she wanted me to listen to: Monster by Skillet. It perfectly portrays Ulquiorra's conflict in my story, listen to it. T-T thank you, Nyx87.

~Please read my new story~ I've published a short story alternative to the book "Give a Boy a Gun" by Todd Strasser. If you guys can, please read it and let me know what you thought ^_^

[Drumroll]

~Next Review Benchmark: 75!~

Thank you for helping me reach it, **Phantom-Cosplayer**, **Cecilia Worthy**, **shadowoftheblackdeat**, **MyKindomCome**, **Bombus** **Bumblebee**, **shadowdemontenma**, **namewithnomeaning**, **Nyx87** and **Unbr0ken** for offering your opinions! I'll have a reward by next week, hopefully ^_^

**Song of the week: Crystallize by Lindsey Stirling**


	20. I Stand Corrected

Grimmjow: Woah…

Me: What?

Grimmjow: Unbr0ken looks like he's about to kill a bitch…

Unbr0ken: (Sulks in corner of the room) How dare you T_T*

Me: (sweats) what?

Unbr0ken: Grimmjow's arm! You let that happen TTT-TTT You know how much I hate that part of the story…

Me: Ah ^_^' Sorry…I just completely forgot about your feelings during that, so I went by how I originally had it. Besides, I don't think you'll let that happen in your story.

Unbr0ken: Sure as hell it won't -.-

Grimmjow: :D See? He's compassionate, why can't you be?

Me: Because it's you we're talking about T_T

Unbr0ken: Don't listen to her, Grimm :3 After all, someone as obsessed with a green-eyed pale guy with sinus issues as her can't possibly understand ^_^

Me: -/./- S-shut u—WAITWHATSINUSISSUES!?

Unbr0ken: ^_^

**SEPTEMBER ELEVENTH, PART ONE**

_ "Yes, Lord Aizen? What is it that you ask of me?"_

_ "In approximately three days you are going to go with Alexia to the World of the Living," Lord Aizen answered._

_ "May I ask why, my lord?"_

_ "It is something she requested of me; if you wish to know her motives then you may ask her."_

_ "Understood."_

_ "Make sure to keep an eye on her actions, Ulquiorra."_

_ "I will, sir."_

Those three days had passed by rather quickly. In a way, it was more of a relief to get assigned a slightly major task such as this than the ones I had been getting the past few days; they were so simple it made me question why Lord Aizen would want me to do even the smallest of tasks.

Szayel had made some preparations for us, and managed to change my marioneta so as to not make it look like I was the same as when I'd been to the World of the Living, as an invisible being to normal humans.

On my way to Alexia's quarters I pondered over her reason of wanting to go to the human world but could only come up with one answer: she was tired of being in Hueco Mundo. In truth it irritated me that she would think so, but she was _human_. Humans acted as humans were, always seeing themselves first before others. She was most likely oblivious to the fact that telling us she was bored of Las Noches would anger some. It wasn't as if I was intensely enraged, either.

A sound and a thought brought me out of my previous thoughts. I had neared Alexia's room; there was something going on inside. A melody played out slowly, mysteriously. _It must be played on an instrument of some sort_, I thought. _Some human invention?_

Standing outside for some time, I continued to listen to her play. The tune increased in sound, then lowered to the point where I almost could not hear it. Unbeknownst to her, I quietly opened the door and wandered in. Her poised back was to me; a strange, shiny, black contraption settled on her shoulder. She moved barely when the tune would change in quality and didn't seem to notice me. Careful not to make myself known, I walked up quietly, watching her over her shoulder.

Her eyes were closed as her fingers pressed down on the strings of the instrument, her other hand holding a bow she strung across, back and forth almost like a programmed mechanism. The sound coming from it was almost giving me a sense of unease. I decided that enough was enough.

"Alexia."

An unsoundly squeak resonated from the instrument instead of the melody and Alexia very nearly screamed, jumping out of her seat. "U-ulquiorra! Damn it, give me a warning next time you sneak up on me!"

"I frightened you?" I asked.

"Yes!" she exclaimed, taking a deep breath to calm herself. After she'd become composed, she smiled at me in a way that made me wonder what exactly she was so delighted about. "So, today we're going to the World of the Living?"

"There is no reason to ask if you already know the answer, woman," I told her, a usual pout appearing on her face when I said such things to her.

"Yeah, but I still can't really believe it. Do you know exactly where we'll be going?"

"I believe that is your decision."

"Huh?" she said curiously. "You mean there's no place in particular that we're going to be traveling to?"

"What else would I mean, woman?" Her constant questioning was beginning to prod at my impatience.

"But if we don't have somewhere exact to go then we'll just be at a loss of what to do…"

"Or would you rather stay here?"

"No."

Once again, she had failed to take others perspectives into consideration. Dismissing the subject altogether I said, "Szayel is expecting us at his lab, let us make haste."

"Right~" she replied happily. It wasn't usually in her character to act as excited as she was today. Was she entirely uninterested in our world to that extent?

She came out of the washroom some minutes later, carrying a fairly large bag on her shoulder. Catching my questioning stare, she said, "I don't plan to leave my merchandise behind, I'm going to be taking some stuff with me."

"Whoever said you were going to purchase anything?" I asked causally, although she perceived it as a harsh comment.

"Me."

"…Why are you like this?" I asked.

"Huh?"

"You seem to be acting elated today. What has caused this?"

"It's a secret," she grinned at me, holding her hands behind her back. I stared at her for a few moments and decided to leave, Alexia following close behind.

"Szayelaporro," I called out when we arrived at the entrance to his lab. The doors opened and, upon going inside, we were greeted by Szayelapporo.

"Morning, Szayel!" Alexia replied happily. "So—sorry to be so sudden, but is my marioneta ready?"

"The way you're asking me makes it seem as if you've been excited about this."

"No shit, I'm pretty much running out of patience as we speak," she joked, crossing her arms. Szayelapporo led her to another room, leaving me as if I wasn't there in the first place. They came back some time later; analyzing the small traces of her spiritual pressure, I noticed that unless I searched thoroughly for it, her power was almost nonexistent. _She's in a marioneta? For what reason?_ Her clothing was different as well.

"So, I was going to ask you if you know anything about where we're going," Alexia continued to converse with Szayelapporo.

As if he had already suspected she would ask such a question, he beckoned both Alexia and I to a lone table with only a model globe of the World of the Living. "This will help you get where you want to go."

"How exactly?" I spoke up, both of them turning to me. "This is a mere globe."

"Well, that's what it seems to be," Szayelapporo started, "but this device will actually direct you to any point in the World of the Living with a simple touch."

If possible, I saw a spark in Alexia's eyes. "Anywhere?"

"Anywhere."

"So, like—" She was about to touch the globe when I stuck my hand out to prevent her from doing so. "What?"

"Do not touch it if you do not know how touse it," I advised. She stared at me thoughtfully before nodding and retreating her hand.

"I've also gotten these for you," Szayelapporo said, taking two small rectangular devices from his pocket. Handing one to each of us he said, "Surely you know what these are, Alexia; Ulquiorra, you will be able to communicate with each other and I with this."

"What is this?" I asked, turning the device over in my hand. It felt smooth.

"A cellphone. It is used by humans and is one of their greatest inventions."

"I never had a cellphone," Alexia admitted. While I stared at her blankly, Szayelapporo furrowed his eyebrows. She shrugged in response. "Mother was against it and I never really found a need for it…I know how to use them, though."

"Will you teach Ulquiorra the basics when you get the chance?" Szayelapporo asked. Alexia nodded. Looking at me, Granz motioned for me to follow him.

"I've made a few adjustments to your marioneta in regards to its appearance," Szayelapporo said as we neared my faux body, which was lying on a table.

The only differences I could see were my facial features. The tear streaks from my eyes to the bottom of my checks were gone and my eyebrows formed an arc over my eyes. My eyes themselves had also changed—instead of large green irises and slitted pupils that should've been staring back at me coldly, smaller irises with circular pupils seemed to be in a distant place. _When I go into this form, I will look…human._

The thought didn't comfort me, neither did I feel disgusted by it.

Setting myself on top of my puppet, my entity merged into its form and I felt myself solidifying; then the feeling faded and I got into a sitting position, flexing my hands and arms. _What…?_

"What am I wearing?" I asked.

"Do you not like the colors?" Szayelapporo answered with a small smirk. "It's nothing complicated: black denim pants, a thin, black sweatshirt with a white shirt underneath. I figured something simple like this would suit you."

"I…like it," Alexia appeared next to me. "Were you planning for us to look like this?" Inspecting her attire, I noticed that hers was nearly the same as mine, with the exception that her sweater (which had a zipper) was unzipped and had a hood.

"It only seems appropriate; it'll be easier to find each other if you know that your clothing is similar," Szayelapporo explained. He then gave us both a small, rectangular, plastic container. Opening it, I saw small pieces or multicolored…candy? I'd heard briefly about it from Alexia but didn't see what the purpose for my needing one was. "If you ever need to separate from your faux body, just swallow a capsule and you'll be out in an instant."

"These look like nerds in a PEZ dispenser…," Alexia murmured, taking some out onto the palm of her hand. "Why are they all different colors?"

"Each one has a different personality."

"You mean…"

"On occasion, spirits are dragged into this world by hollows—they wandered into the area. I had no choice—altering their memories and character, they're perfectly tame souls that aren't going to run away with your fake body. Taking care of these marionetas is an excellent alternative to being eaten by hollows. Even if they do run away with your body, it isn't necessarily a big problem."

That didn't seem to be what was bothering her.

"…" I stared at her and she met my gaze for a moment; she looked away immediately afterwards. "Szayelapporo, give us instructions on how to transport using your device," I broke the silence and got off of the table, walking away. They followed and we all came back to the globe. Szayelapporo positioned the globe on the table (for no reason, apparently) and told Alexia to help him.

"Ulquiorra, can you open a garganta?" he questioned, as if I couldn't.

Instead of answering him I extended my hand to tear the atmosphere apart and create the garganta we'd travel through. Szayelapporo prevented me from stepping in before I could do anything else, though. "Just touch the place you want to go," he instructed. Alexia smiled and immediately pointed to the location.

"Tokyo, Japan?" Szayelapporo said incredulously.

"Yeah," she relied happily. "I've never gone."

Szayelapporo exchanged a few more questions with her while I tuned them both out. This whole process was beginning to tire me. After a few minutes they finished, Szayelapporo handing her two small blue cards that I couldn't figure why we needed.

Alexia took the globe, holding from the metal base and axis on top. As she neared the garganta it seemed to glow. I watched as the globe was held out in front of her and a spark of spiritual energy linked the garganta and globe together. Cautiously waking closer, she stuck the globe hallway through the garganta. As the globe made contact with the barrier between the garganta and our world, ripples in the atmosphere were created from it as if it were a wall of water.

The image of the garganta changed and instead showed the setting of a place which I knew Alexia had chosen to go to, if the obvious contentment displayed on her features weren't enough of an indication. Also looking at the place before us, I couldn't fathom why she would prefer a location such as this one. The entire scene defined energy—everything was in motion. An echo of the noise produced from the other side could be faintly heard.

"Well, let's go," Alexia said, looking at Szayelapporo for confirmation. With a nod of his head, she took a step through and disappeared.

I pushed any thoughts of skepticism from my mind and asked, "How are you certain that she has made it to her destination safely?"

"I've tried it several times—" he started.

"Yourself?"

"With test subjects, of course," he corrected arrogantly. "They all came back alive and well. Now, you must go as well before she wanders off. Tokyo is an incredibly populated area."

Without an answer, I went to the garganta and hesitated for only a second before going through. As if I was walking through a door, I was immediately greeted by the faint sounds I'd heard in Szayelapporo Granz's lab—now full scale and blaring.

"I thought you'd never arrive," Alexia smiled, grabbed my wrist and attempted to pull me along. I stayed firmly put. "What?"

"I can walk perfectly well without your assistance, woman."

"I know…," she laughed nervously before letting go. "I'm just really excited."

I could barely hear her over all the activity bustling around us. Letting out a small sigh she didn't notice, I took her wrist instead and led her off to a less-populated area. Some humans' expressions whom we passed showed their discomfort at us cutting through.

I found a somewhat calm place and sat down on a bench. Alexia only stared at me curiously. "What's wrong, Ulquiorra?"

"Do you find…lively…places like these appealing?" I asked.

"Well…yeah, but if you don't want to stay then we can just go somewhere else if you want…"

"We left to go here because you chose to leave in the first place; therefore, it is your decision whether or not to go to a different location." Closing my eyes for a few seconds and then getting up, I walked away from her.

"H-hey!"

"You did not come here to stay in one place, did you?"

"Of course not…," she agreed and walked up behind me almost as if trying to hide in fear of being seen. Suddenly, her attention was pulled to a small shop across a path where mechanisms were driving along. If I recalled correctly, they were called 'cars'. "It looks like we're on the outskirts of Tokyo…"

"Is there something you would like to get from that shop?" I questioned, although it sounded more like a statement.

She nodded and headed in the direction of the store, expecting me to follow. It wasn't as if I had a choice. The symbols on the sign of the store were strange but somehow I understood them: Sakikuro Sweets.

_Sweets?_

The intoxicating smell of food wafted in the moment we set foot inside the shop. The walls of the store were bright pink and light green, clashing diversely with our clothing.

"_Ah, kon'nichiwa!_" the petite saleswoman at a counter greeted us. Somehow I could understand what she had said. With a large smile on her face, Alexia said the same and started to carefully scan each and every display case of food the store offered. Well, it wasn't as if I was going to stand there; I also walked with her to see what she found interesting.

"_Ah, nan_ is this?" Alexia said, my mind automatically translating her words.

"Mochi," the woman answered with a smile, glancing over at me. I stared back blankly and her face reddened. She instantly looked away and came out from behind the counter, going to Alexia's side to guide her. Her words were no longer foreign. "Here we have strawberry mochi, kiwi, azuki bean, blueberry, chocolate—ah, there are different kinds or chocolate flavors…" She went on saying all the flavors as if she was going to get rewarded for it. She then showed Alexia the rest of the sweets, occasionally sneaking a glance at me, which I returned with a stare.

"Ulquiorra, you should try one," Alexia said, taking a bite out of a small, pale-pink 'mochi' and closing her eyes, savoring the flavor of them. "They're pretty good."

"I am quite alright, this trip is for your benefit," I answered, turning my back on her and heading for the door.

"Ulquiorra!"

Giving a small sigh, I turned to face her. "What, woman?"

Neither of us paid attention to the girl watching us, but she didn't seem to be bothered by our small disagreement. Fiddling with her hands, she went back to the counter and rearranged some items on it while listening on on us.

"At least try it?" she asked.

"Why should I?"

"Do you need a reason?"

"Yes."

"Because I want you to."

"No." With that I left her there. It would have seemed harsh to another person, but it was a common occurrence for me. Most of the time that I wasn't serving Lord Aizen, I was having my time wasted by the people around me.

The streets were bustling with humans and occasionally some bumped into me. I glared at them and they immediately retreated from me.

"Get away from me!" another teenage girl briskly walked away from a boy her same age who was chasing after her. "I told you to never come to me again, you stupid fool!"

"Please listen to me!" he responded, taking her wrist in his hand and forcing her to stop. They were unaware of my eyes watching them.

"No!"

"Please, you need to listen to me!" he continued, looking her in the eyes.

"You cheated on me," she calmed down a bit but her anger was still evident. I didn't exactly understand what she'd meant. Were they playing some sort of game?

"Well…I thought that you were avoiding me and well, I thought that you might've decided to dump me…"

_Dump him where?_

"Of course not!" she strongly disagreed. Starting to fidget with her auburn hair, she bit her lip and continued. "I thought the same thing; you weren't looking at me whenever I saw you and you would always go out of your way to get out of mine."

"Here." The boy took out a bundle of plants wrapped in some sort of paper and gave it to her. Her face brightened instantly and she threw her arms around him. "I love you."

_So that's what this is?_

"I love you too," the girl answered. Their eyes met and their lips met chastely. Uncaring of anyone seeing my actions, I rolled my eyes. _What stupidity._

"Okay," Alexia opened the door of the sweets shop and went outside. "Now, are you fine with traveling by train?"

Instead of answering her I continued to stare at the couple as they pulled back from each other's embrace and held hands. Just a few minutes ago they'd been arguing so intensely and now they were acting like nothing had happened?

"They seem pretty happy," she noted, shouldering her bag over one shoulder and fiddling with her hair. Taking out one of the devices she called a 'cellphone', she handed it to me and I reluctantly took it.

"I do not know how to use these kinds of things," I reminded her.

She nodded as if expecting me to say that. "That's why I'm going to explain how; as long as you remember it'll be easy. Here—" she took out her own phone and pressed on it, "—press this button in the middle and the screen'll lighten up."

I did as she said and it worked.

"Then you…uh, we'll mostly be texting, so…you press here where it says 'messaging.'" I continued to follow her verbal instructions. "If someone sent you a text, then you go to 'inbox'; if you want to create one go to 'create message'. You can use the middle button to go back to where you were before. Then, when you want to…"

I put my attention back on the couple, who were getting a type of food that they licked from an edible cone and sharing it. What was the point of that?

"So the whole thing is click, press, flip, text, send. Got it?"

"…"

"Ulquiorra?"

I blinked and came to. "Yes, whatever is fit," I answered without much thought.

"Well, I already got our tickets," she smiled and took out two small cards. Just how long did I watch those two? She's completely changed the subject of conversation. "These'll permit us to go on; here, take yours and don't lose it."

I turned the ticket over, skimming through its contents.

**Yokoyama station to:**

**Tokyo tower**

**13:00**

**Round trip**

**Admit one**

"Tokyo tower?" I said.

"Um…it's a tower. In Tokyo."

"That much is obvious."

"Alright, until the time comes I'll keep on explaining stuff—sooo, when you're going to—"

"That is enough of an explanation," I interrupted, shifting my gaze to a set of stairs going into the ground. Strangely enough, humans were venturing down into it. A clock was above the stairs. "The time is 12:53."

"Shit!" she ran off in the direction of the tunnel and pulled me along with ease—contrary to the weak efforts I usually felt from her. _This must be the disadvantage of the marioneta_, I thought.

The mass of people that had begun to wither down above ground had been in this underground tunnel. If anything, twice as many people had gathered below ground. _For what?_

"A bullet train?" Alexia asked. A few people shoved their way past her and she bumped into me. Sighing, she got behind me and hung on to my shoulders. She nearly had to yell in order to be heard. "Follow the sign that says Kanto Region!"

Although the symbols were a mixture of lines I'd never seen before, I read them with effortlessness. Trusting that Alexia would not let go of me, I went in the direction the sign indicated, soon coming to a slightly less crowded area where another enormous piece of equipment (a bullet train, as I'd heard Alexia say) was already pulling up to a platform. How humans had the capacity to make something like this given their common sense was beyond me.

"Hurry," she pushed me along and we made it inside of the train, our bodies practically pushed against those around us, which I found a bit disturbing. At least the humans were attempting to keep some space around each other. The train traveled almost as fast as it would take an arrancar to sonido to the same places (naturally, arrancars were quicker), passing through ever-so-increasing crowds of humans making their way to their destinations.

"Tokyo Tower, Kanto region," a man's voice spoke through speakers. As the doors next to us opened, we made our way out and I was relieved to not stay in the train any longer. But the crowd here wasn't much better.

"I'll be out in a second," she said, releasing the back of my sweater and heading towards another shop. What is she planning now…

"What are you going to do, woman?" I asked, putting my hands in the pockets of the jeans I was wearing. It was considerate of Szayelapporo to think of my habits.

"I'm going to ask directions—all of these signs don't make it easy to find a tower," she replied. Before I could object, she went inside the store. The door rang as she entered.

_Honestly_. Leaning back against the wall of the store, I took out the cellphone and pressed the button in the middle; it lit up. Why humans would want to communicate with one another at a distance was a mystery to me. As I was about to put the phone back into my pocket, it shook in my hand and a message came up.

New Text From:

Szayelapporo Granz

I stared at it. Below the message were two choices: 'Read' and 'Erase.' the former made more sense in my opinion and I tried to click on it, then soon remembered that I hadn't heard everything that Alexia had explained. The cellphone's light blacked out from the amount of time I'd spent not using it. _Let us try this again, then._

Sighing inaudibly, I clicked the middle button and then went to where she'd told me—'messaging.' Then to the inbox. Sure enough, there was a 1 in parenthesis next to the word 'inbox', notifying me of a new message. Szayelapporo's message was the only text I had gotten so far, so when I pressed on the inbox it instantly directed me to his message.

** 'Hey, Ulquiorra:**

** What kind of behavior have you seen in Alexia?'**

So I wasn't the only one who'd noticed her increased happiness today. Now, how was I supposed to reply…as obvious as the crowd of people in the place I was currently at, there was a button at the bottom of the phone's screen that said 'reply.'

_Well, at least humans can keep things somewhat simple_, I thought, pressing on the button. A blank screen appeared with a single line flashing, indicating where I was supposed to type my answer. The question was how I was supposed to type it. Alexia must've explained it while I was observing those two humans…

I tried pressing on the screen. Nothing.

I pressed a few buttons. That only resulted in backtracking all the progress I'd made and having to do it all over again to get to the same place I was at.

Noticing how the entire phone would shift under the motion in my hands, I tried to pry it open to see it there was something to use. It triggered something Alexia had said earlier, something I had heard.

'So it's click, press, flip, text, send.'

What did that even mean?

I'd already done the clicking and pressing, so flipping was the next part? What was there to flip? Turning the phone over in my hands, there wasn't a contraption to help me. My anger started to rise as I grew impatient; there were very little things I didn't know how to work—of course not counting all these human contraptions that served every possible purpose in every world.

When Alexia still hadn't come back and I still couldn't figure it how to reply I nearly threw the phone, but with my always keeping a stoic image I managed to contain myself. It was a wonder that _he_ hadn't shown up yet. Then again, maybe this marioneta contained his form—ever since I'd entered it, I felt liberated, in a sense. For just a while it could be as if he didn't exist.

"Damn it…," I let my words slip. Sighing, I was in the act of putting the phone back in my pocket when something happened to it. Somehow, the back of it slid out to the side of the top, revealing a pad with letters strewn all over it. After staring in wonder for a few seconds, I lifted it back up and pressed on a letter: U. It appeared on the blank screen.

Was this really how? It seemed incredibly simple—yet I hadn't been able to figure it out. So this was what she'd meant by flip. Obviously, typing would make the text. Another button at the bottom of the screen read 'send.' I had no reaction whatsoever.

How did humans manage to make something such as this? It contradicted itself in so many ways.

Closing my eyes in relief, I opened them again awhile after and started to reply.

**Szayelapporo, you have noticed her enthusiastic antics as well? Do you know the reason behind them?**

I hit send.

At least that was over with. I turned to see inside the shop through its window; Alexia was conversing with someone else in the shop. She seemed to be enjoying herself—completely oblivious to me watching (not to mention waiting for) her.

After bidding a farewell to her new acquaintance, she looked my way and sent me an apologetic smile.

"Sorry I kept you waiting," she said as she closed the door behind her. "There was a woman who told me about a few others places around here that we should check out."

I silently followed her as she led the way, a smile on her features the entire time. Soon we came to a place that was overflowing with humans.

"Woman."

"What is it?" she asked with a grin.

"What exactly appeals to you about going to places where you can barely move?"

"It's not that bad," she laughed. "They're letting people in by groups; it would be mayhem if they let everyone in at the same time."

We spent quite a bit of time waiting to go inside; while waiting, Alexia ate more of the candies she'd bought and offered some to me, which I still denied. In that moment, Szayelapporo answered. I tried to remain inconspicuous as I read the message.

** 'I know why. She hasn't told you?'**

I replied. **No; why is she acting as such?**

He wasted no time in answering. **'I wonder why she hasn't said anything to you. Anyways, are you around her right now?'**

**Why wouldn't I be at her side?** I answered.

**'Ah, right. Here, go to an icon on the main screen that says 'IM'. It'll be easier to send texts this way.'**

Going to the screen and pressing on it, a message from Szayelapporo was already displayed on the screen.** 'You here yet?'**

** I am here.**

** 'That's good. Now, can you try to hide your phone from her as much as possible?'**

**I am currently doing that at the moment. Now, why wouldn't she tell me?**

**'I have a suspicion that she might not want you to know.'** Pondering over her reason for wanting to keep something a secret from me, I dismissed the thought.

**Tell me.**

** 'Ok…well, today's her birthday.'**

**What is a birthday**? I asked. He didn't answer right away, leading me to think that I'd said something that surprised him. Adding on I texted,** is it something important?**

** 'It's the day she was born. Every year, humans celebrate another year of life that they've been given. Today, September 11th, is her day. I still don't understand why she'd hide something like this from you.'**

**Neither do I.** I glanced at her, happily nibbling on another sweet. **She doesn't seem to be trying to hide it either, as if I already know.**

** 'Keep this a secret. She may not like the idea of someone else telling you about her birthday. Maybe she wanted to tell you herself.'**

"Ulquiorra, the line's moving," she finished her snack and picked up her bags, heading in the direction the rest of the crowd. I hastily replied before following. **I'll have to figure it out myself.**

"Welcome and thank you for visiting the Tokyo tower!" a tall woman with her black hair tied up in a bun said happily. Too many people were acting cheerful today. "Today all of you will be able to travel up on the tower's elevator onto it's observation deck, where you will have a three hundred and sixty degree view of the Kanto region. Please pay attention to your group's movement, as there are several other groups also having their tours as we speak."

Seeing the people around me, I saw about eight other people around us, not including our guide, Alexia and I. We all headed to yet another transportation device held up in midair by iron ropes. Getting in was a simple task, contrary to what I'd thought; it didn't seem exactly…secure. It withstood all of our combined weight easily. As soon as the entrance closed, the woman pressed a button and the elevator, as Alexia explained briefly to me, shifted, arising a strange feeling in my stomach and chest.

"The observation deck is about halfway up the height of the entire tower," the woman spoke above the side conversations the rest of the humans were having. It seemed as if Alexia and I were the only ones that were silent, which I found to be true when I saw the woman staring at us as if expecting us to begin conversing. She stared somewhat happily at me as I stared back at her coldly and we stayed in that position for some moments. The only one who noticed us was Alexia, who starting laughing nervously.

"So…why are you so serious today?" Alexia attempted to make conversation with me.

"What else am I, if not serious?" My gaze shifted to her and her face flushed a bit.

"Well, I mean, it's not like I was expecting you to act differently today…"

"I understand," I replied simply and looked away, fixing my eyes on the buttons next to our guide. At an even pace, the consecutive numbers lit up in yellow. 38…39…40… The last one, fifty, was in red, which I assumed was the number the woman had wanted to go to. Hopefully it wouldn't take too long.

"Hey, um…," Alexia started. Fiddling with her hair, she tried to continue. "Well, today is sort of a special day. You see, today is—"

"Alright everyone, please step off cautiously, those in the front first!" the woman interrupted. Contradicting myself, I now wanted the trip in the elevator to have been longer so as to hear Alexia. Giving a small sigh, I walked out with my hands in my pockets after everyone else had left.

Glass windows surrounded the perimeter of the room, giving a full view of the scenery around us. Alexia was certainly ecstatic, practically running to the window and looking around. She turned to smile towards me. It didn't impress me much; I would be able to do the same if I went go into my resurreccion, Murcielago. The nostalgic feeling of the wings on my back made me desire to leave this place and go back to Hueco Mundo as soon as possible.

"Come here." Alexia approached me and took my hand, leading me to where she was and pointing in front of her. "Can you see the water?"

"What about it?" I said, uninterested.

"We'll go there afterwards," she explained. "See fireworks, scenery, stuff that's more laid back. Would you like that?"

"Whatever enthuses you."

"Enthusing you would enthuse me."

I stared into her eyes. No sign of her lying. "How long do you expect to stay here?" I changed the subject altogether.

"Before it's too late," she said jokingly, then sighed when she saw that I wasn't amused. "Seriously, when it seems like enough is enough we'll go back. Does the World of the Living really annoy you this much?"

"Yes," I answered without hesitation. Walking away, she followed and I soon found myself walking in complete circles around the observation deck with her in my shadow.

"Where are you going, Ulqui-cielago?"

"How long are you planning to follow me without motive?" I answered. Hearing her sigh again, I turned abruptly to face her and she bumped onto me. I put a hand on her shoulder to stabilize her, seeing the redness of her cheeks. "Your mind is preoccupied."

"I-is it?" she said quietly. Noticing something, she took my hand in hers and led me to it. Her actions came as a bit surprising at first when her fingers laced in mine. The whole time, she hid her expression from me—but from her character I could assume that her face had become redder.

We walked out onto a glass-framed section of the deck (which I was almost completely sure wasn't safe). Below us, the view of the activity going on as we were above ground bustled along. Again, it didn't impress me. Of course it would entertain humans, with their inability to fly.

"I guess this isn't exactly interesting to you," Alexia murmured as if she'd read my mind, letting our interlaced hands go and crouching down to peer at the world below her. "How does it feel? Flying, I mean."

What _did_ it feel like? Flying was flying—it had never occurred to me as something to enjoy. I reflected on the wind gliding along my black wings and the feeling of diving downwards, then going back into the air sharply. "It is…strange."

Alexia noticed that other people were waiting to come onto the glass platform we were on and beckoned me out with her. "Strange in what way?"

"I have never considered what I experience when in my resurreccion form," I answered. "How do you know about my resurreccion, woman?"

Her eyes widened. "Oh. Well…you see—" she chuckled a bit, scratching the back of her head, "—it's kind of a long story…"

I continued to stare at her, expecting an answer.

"You seriously want a response from me, don't you?"

I still stared.

"…," she stared back instead of answering, but her eyes weren't hardened with resolve and she soon signed in surrender. "I'll answer you."

"Then answer me," I commanded. A few humans turned our way but I paid no attention to them.

"Not today," she said unexpectedly. "I want to spend the day not worrying or thinking about all the problems in Hueco Mundo. Can you do that as well? Just pretend you're human; just today. I'm not going to ask anything more of you."

"Why would I want to do such a thing as try to act as if I were one of your kind?" My glare became colder and harsher.

"All right, everyone, let's all make out way back to the elevators!" the tall woman announced. Some of the tension that had been building up slowly faded away and I found myself ruffling Alexia's hair.

"We're going to get stuck here if we don't go with the group," I said. My hand left her head as quickly as it had appeared and I left, hearing her footsteps following me.

It didn't take long to make our way out of the building; Alexia went to a few stores but, thankfully, didn't purchase more than she could handle. We made our way to another train above ground, where we took about an hour going to our next destination. Which I didn't know.

"Woman," I called out. Her head was slumped on my shoulder and I leaned forward, forcefully making her regain consciousness. "Where are we going?"

"To…a smaller district that's near the Kanto region," she yawned, covering her mouth and squeezing her eyes shut. "There's less people and a lot of natural scenery. I like it but I prefer being where all the activity is; I can tell that you like peaceful places, though, so I wanted to take you there." With that she pressed me back against my seat and set her head on my shoulder again. I only stared at her as her breaths evened out. Szayel sent another message in the moment that I decided to relax as well.

** 'Did you find anything out?'**

**No**, I replied.

** 'Where are you two right now?'**

** On a train.**

** 'Try to get something out of her.'**

** She knows of my resurreccion.**

** 'How?'**

** I attempted to force an answer from her but she said she did not want to trouble herself with the ordeals of Hueco Mundo.**

** 'You might want to leave her alone for today; it is her birthday, after all.'**

** Is it that important?**

** 'Most people don't want anything to trouble them on their birthday.'**

** I see**, I replied quickly as Alexia murmured something incoherent and woke up. "Where are we?" I inquired before she could say anything.

"Uh…wouldn't you know better than I?" she said. "I took a nap, it's not like I can pay atten—"

"Shireka District," a man whom reminded me of the one on the other train we'd traveled on.

"Ah, we're almost…no, I think…crap."

"What?"

"I think we passed it already," she groaned. Giving a loud sigh, she stood up and went to a diagram of the train's route. Tracing our path, her face brightened in relief when she found that we hadn't passed our stop.

"How long will it take to get to our destination?" I asked whilst she sat down again and looked out the window.

"Just a few more stops," she answered.

We were silent for the rest of the ride. The train stopped occasionally to let more passengers on and let some off. A few moments later, we made our exit.

The environment around us was almost too relaxing, less than a fraction of the people who were in Tokyo lived here. In the distance, a mountain rose over the red, orange and brown-leaved trees. Alexia breathed deeply and ran off, leaving me behind.

"…Alexia…?"

"Ah, sorry," she ran back. "I just thought you would follow."

"Not if you are running."

"I can see that," she laughed and started off again at a moderate pace with me following reluctantly.

"Are you planning to climb up that mountain, woman?"

"Of course not," she raised an eyebrow at me. "We don't have all day…I mean, we do—but we wouldn't be able to climb it in one day. Unless you want to run away and live as a human." She smirked playfully as she said the last sentence, but I did not find her remark amusing.

"Never," I answered firmly.

"I was just kidding around," she dismissed my response with a wave of her hand. Straying from the straight path we were taking, Alexia stepped into the trees and beckoned me with her.

She grew impatient when I commented, "You will get lost, woman."

"We'll just summon a garganta if it comes to that," she suggested. "And call me Alexia, just for today."

I stared at her expectant face. _Doing this would be…human._

Ulquiorra Schiffer, a hollow. Acting as a human would. The thought conveyed curiosity and, at the same time, repulsion.

_What…_

"Alright," I said, stepping into the trees, "Alexia."

_What is it…that I want?_

**O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0**

Me: ._. Did I end this chapter too suddenly? I have a feeling I did.

Alexia: Hey, why exactly do you like Ulquiorra?

Me: -/_/- Why even ask if you already know the answer?

Unbr0ken: But generally speaking, are guys like Ulquiorra your type?

Me: I g-guess…how did the conversation turn into this…?

Unbr0ken: I think what you're referring to are guys that are laid back, not strict and stuck up.

Alexia and I: Hey!

Unbr0ken: (Ponders) Well…oh, let's look at it like peanut butter!

Me: O.o

Alexia: Peanut butter…?

Unbr0ken: You see, Grimmjow— (Grabs Grimmjow and pushes him in the center of the room)—Is reckless and daring, not afraid to get in trouble.

Grimmjow: Well, yeah…

Unbr0ken: So, he's like really crunchy peanut butter with tons of peanuts in it!

Grimmjow: -.-' I don't really like peanut butter, it sticks to the top of your mouth.

Unbr0ken: But Ulquiorra is pretty easygoing and doesn't really care about anything (mumbles)…in your opinion…

Me: Hey, he really is if you think about it!

Unbr0ken: So Ulquiorra is like smooth peanut butter that has very little peanuts in it :D You get where I'm coming from?

Ulquiorra: T_T I hate peanut butter.

Unbr0ken: :D But what about peanut butter and jelly?

Ulquiorra: That is fine, but—

Unbr0ken: (Pushes Alexia in Ulquiorra's direction) So now you have smooth peanut butter and grape jelly! They go perfect together!

Alexia: O/./O

Grimmjow: (Whispers in Unbr0ken's ear) And I guess you're my jelly, huh?

Unbr0ken: -/./- H-hell yeah.

Me: O.o What the fuck is with all this romance…

Next Benchmark: Ok, I reached my next one (they just keep flooding in O.O) so now I have to take account of 2 benchmarks ^_^ I should probably change them soon or I'll be doing this too often ._.

Thank you, **ShadowDemonTenma, MyKingdomCome, Alex–Kurotani, Phantom-Cosplayer, Cecilia Worthy, mrs. alex kurasaki, shadowoftheblackdeat** and **Unbr0ken** for contributing! I now know your rewards :3 You guys get a box of mochi! And/or if you helped with the last one, you get to ride a bullet train to Tokyo tower!

Grimmjow: You _do _know that that can't actually happen, right?

Me: Shut up—it's a fanfic, therefore it can fictionally happen :D

Grimmjow: -.-' Yeah, ok. Whatever you say…

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

**P.S. I'm going to be collaborating on a fanfic with Unbr0ken! It'll be a spinoff of his story, which he's going to publish this weekend, hopefully *hopeful glare*—and my story combined, so please read it when it is published (not sure when that'll be) and also read his story when you have the time: True Colors.**

Song of the week: Troublemaker by Hyuna and Hyunseung


	21. Now That's Progressive

Unbr0ken: :D

Alexia: That's a creepy way to greet the readers…

Grimmjow: -.- He's planning something, I can feel it.

Unbr0ken: Hey Grimmjow, what's two plus two?

Grimmjow: Um…four?

Unbr0ken: No ^_^ it's twenty-two, dummy.

Alexia: T_T Are you kidding me?

Unbr0ken: How about one plus one?

Grimmjow: ._. Eleven.

Unbr0ken: Woooow (smirk) Are you okay? It's obvious the answer's two, Grimm.

Grimmjow: (Takes paper) Hey, is this your math homework?

Unbr0ken: Yeah, wh—NO DON'T RIP IT!

Grimmjow: (grins angrily) I know how to add, alright?

Unbr0ken: T-T I don't like it when you're mean to me…

Alexia: Woah, you're doing calculus?

Unbr0ken: Yeah ._. it's a long, long, long, long, long—

Alexia: T_T We get it.

Unbr0ken: —long, long process…I'm actually having some trouble with it.

Grimmjow: Want me to help you with it?

Unbr0ken: YES THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Alexia: Yeah, you need help in more ways than one -.-'

**SEPTEMBER ELEVENTH, PART TWO**

Three words.

Best. Birthday. Ever.

So far.

Okay, so that technically made it five (doesn't really matter, does it?). Things had gone more smoothly than I'd expected. The trip to Tokyo was a bit shorter than I had wanted it to be, but I didn't want to keep Ulquiorra there too long, especially with he expression he was wearing. He might've thought he was hiding it, but I could see how impatient he was getting of being in a large crowd and bustling along.

Personally, I loved cities more than rural areas—but that might've been because of all the horror movies I'd seen that involved corn fields, abandoned houses and people who couldn't get help on time. Just thinking of some of them sent chills up my spine and images from those movies.

Ulquiorra brought me back to the present when he laid a hand on my shoulder. "What are you thinking of?"

"Ah." I thought about it for a second. "My weaknesses. They're not major, more like all the small things."

"Do you remember the way back?" he asked. I didn't get why he was so intent on keeping our path. It wasn't like we were going to actually get lost. Like I'd said some minutes ago, we'd just go back to Hueco Mundo if we couldn't find our way back.

"I remember."

"How, exactly? By putting these ribbons around the trees?" he indicated the white ribbons I'd been tying around every ten or fifteen trees we passed. The woods around here were more dense than I'd imagined. Not paying attention to where I was walking, I tripped over the roots of a tree. "You seem so distracted by one of your faults that you are creating other ones."

"Yeah, yeah," I rubbed my head which had bumped into the tree's trunk. "How do you like the scenery?"

Ulquiorra looked up at the trees. They weren't that tall, maybe ten or fifteen feet, but their height didn't overshadow the varying colors of the fall leaves. Orange, red, brown, yellow, they all seemed to substitute the sky like the sunset.

"Well?" I asked again.

"It is fine," he answered, completely unenthusiastic.

"You can't just say that it's 'fine.'"

"I have just done so."

"I know, but…ok, what exactly do you find 'fine' about this place?"

He remained silent, probably contemplating over what he could say. I was glad to see that he was acting a bit loose today, which I was suspecting he could because of the marioneta; it must have been masking the other person's presence so that Ulquiorra could have complete control.

Ulquiorra suddenly neared me and put a hand on the tree I was leaning on, trapping me. My eyes widened as his intent eyes focused on me. _What's going on!?_ He used his other hand to put a finger to his lips, signaling for me to be quiet. _What the hell!?_

"U-ulquiorra…what are…"

"Did I not tell you to be quiet?"

_What!?_

"Don't move," he whispered. "When I advise you to, move slowly."

I waited while he stopped staring at me and instead focused on something next to me.

"There is some sort of insect near your head."

_WHAT!?_

He immediately saw my tension and moved in closer to try and make me still. As if; that only made me want to run away and hide under a hole. "G-get it away from me!" I whispered, screwing my eyes shut.

I could hear his hand moving next to my head. _Is he grabbing it with his bare hand?_ "It's gone."

Sighing in relief, I slowly looked up at him. Already he'd gotten away from me and all traces of that intense stare he'd given me were gone. In a way I almost felt a longing for that look. It almost seemed as if he'd needed me by his side. Very funny.

I remembered the way I'd hid my face as much as I possibly could when we'd gone to the Tokyo tower and I'd laced his hand with mine. The only way I could motivate myself to do it was thinking/telling myself that he wouldn't know what it meant and he'd probably dismiss my reason in a second. It was a pathetic thing to do, really, when you saw the logic behind it.

"Woman?"

I snapped out of my thoughts. "It's Alexia, remember?"

"…," He held out his fisted hand and my first reaction was to jump away (if my assumption that he'd grabbed the insect was true). Then his fist slowly unfolded to reveal…a butterfly?

"Are you kidding me? A butterfly?"

"Is that what they are called?" Ulquiorra responded, the yellow-winged creature flying out of his hands and back into the trees. "It seemed harmless, I do not understand why you were afraid of it."

"I thought it was something else," I mumbled and felt my ears heat up from embarrassment. "I hate insects, but butterflies are one of the very few that I'm okay with."

"I see." Ulquiorra stared at his hand and I got curious. Holding his palm up on top of mine, I saw the small scales from the butterfly's wings in his palm.

"How did it feel to grab a butterfly?" I asked.

"I did not feel anything in particular, why should I?"

Could've guessed. "I don't know, don't you ever think about how something affects you?"

"It does not affect me, which is the reason for my not thinking of it."

"…Ah."

"Have you done this before?" asked Ulquiorra. "Grabbing an insect."

"Only butterflies," I laughed nervously, remembering the time when I'd gone with the rest of my family to hunt them. I wouldn't have called it a hunt since it wasn't like the butterflies were difficult to catch. "When I was a lot younger, maybe seven or eight, I went with my family to this forest reserve close to our house. It was strange: I don't remember all of it, but there were tons of them—butterflies, I mean. I couldn't catch any; right until the end, I only caught one."

"What did you do with it?" Ulquiorra's curiosity got the best of him.

"I got it and held it close to me," I said, symbolizing it by pressing my hands over my chest. "When I held my hands out to look at the butterfly I'd caught, I saw that it wasn't trying to fly away. At first I was happy, but it was a matter of time until I realized that I'd crushed its wings when I'd grabbed it," a small, sad smile came to my face. "I took it home with me, tried to find a way to fix its wings so it could fly again, but I couldn't. It died a while later."

"You killed it, then?"

"You're making it seem worse than it actually is," I scoffed. "But technically, I did. I guess it just goes to say that if I hold onto something dear and keep it too close I'll just end up hurting it." My explanation almost had a double meaning, as if I was making a subconscious connection to my bonds with other people, especially with what had happened a week ago.

"Alexia."

I snapped out of my thoughts. "Well, it's all in the past," I said while nearing a tree, latching onto one of the lower branches and hoisting myself up. My foot slipped and I almost fell when I glanced at Ulquiorra; he had his hands in his pockets and was staring at something in the distance. Regaining my foot on the tree, I continued to climb until I felt I was high enough into the branches. Then I changed course and scooted onto a large branch to my left. It had been a long time since I'd done something like this; I was officially nineteen, after all.

Huffing out a small laugh, I sat on the branch and pulled another one in front of me to conceal my form. It had enough leaves to cover me from view; a good thing because of the darker colors I was wearing.

"Alexia?" he called out. I couldn't see him, which was probably the case for him as well.

"Here," I answered hastily in a hushed voice. I heard his feet crunching over the fallen leaves, coming closer.

"Why are you hiding?"

"It's fun."

"Not if I have already found you."

It didn't take long for me to get the message. "Well, I guess not." Hanging my legs over the top of the branch, I zippered up my hoodie and let myself hang, the world now upside down.

"What are you doing?"

"Seeing the world from a different perspective," I replied, my voice slightly different.

"Does it actually affect how you perceive the world?"

"No," I started to laugh. "All it does is make all the blood in your body rush to your head."

"You tend to do that without having to hang yourself upside down."

My knees went weak for a fraction of a second and I felt myself falling, my heart skipping a beat (from almost falling, not what he'd said…)

"Are you alright?" Ulquiorra asked.

"…I think so…"

"What is concerning you?"

"It's just…how am I supposed to get down from here?"

"…"

"Fuck," I groaned, trying to swing back up but nearly falling again. "Can you…help me?"

He suddenly appeared at eye level with me. "How?"

"Uh…," I tried to stay calm. "Well, you can, uh…catch me?"

Without warning, Ulquiorra poked at my ribs, making me give out a small laugh—before realizing I was falling.

_Fucking shit!_

He grabbed me by my torso as I fell and I instinctively wrapped my arms around his. We ended up falling to the floor together in complete silence.

"…"

"Ulquiorra?"

"Get off of me, woman," he said coldly, nearly pushing me off of him. "Your antics are wasting your time."

"Well, geez, don't get so worked up about it. If I waste my time it'll be my loss. Don't worry about it."

"I am not worried."

An awkward silence followed. Fiddling with the dead leaves around me, I laid down and stared at the tree's branches. Although many leaves were on the ground, there were still plenty in the trees. They filtered the amount of sunlight shining through and made a mosaic of light and color as a substitute for the sky.

"Let us go, woman," Ulquiorra said, already standing and waiting for me to get up.

"Go where?"

"Wherever deems interesting to you, woman."

"Didn't I tell you to call me Alexia?" I reminded him. "And I don't really know where to go from here."

I heard a rustle of leaves in the distance and my heart started to beat faster. Stupid, weak heart. "You heard that as well?"

"Y-yeah…," I got up hesitantly and went to Ulquiorra's side. Another rustle, closer this time. "Who's there?"

"Woman."

My mind was intent on trying to block the sound of the footsteps I heard.

"Alexia."

The sound was right behind me now.

"Alexia. Open your eyes."

_They're closed?_ Slowly opening them, I was greeted by the emerald of Ulquiorra's eyes. They still couldn't stop me from hearing another step and I flinched. "S-stop…hiding…"

This time, instead of footsteps, I heard a soft sniffle and a hiccup. This only frightened me further. "Alexia, it—"

"Don't come any closer!"

"Hic!" it was a high-pitched cross between a sob and a hiccup.

"Alexia, it is only a child."

_Wait. What?_

"A kid?" I said incredulously. Sure enough, a small girl (about six or seven) was sobbing quietly, her back to us as if she was trying to hide herself.

I am not a very good children-sociable person. Just keep this in mind.

"Hey, what are you doing out here?" I asked the girl, crouching down next to her and putting a hand on her shoulder; she immediately tensed up and her head snapped towards me.

"No, I didn't do it!" she murmured as if in a trance. "It was an accident!"

This girl was freaking me out, but I had to do something. "Come on, are you lost? We'll help you get back to your guardians. Right, Ulquiorra?"

"…"

"Ulquiorra?"

"…We will assist you," he finally said, hesitant. "Where do you belong?"

"Ulquiorra, that doesn't necessarily help her much."

"W-who…are you?" the girl asked, her hazel eyes shimmering with tears.

"Your friends," I said happily, but I was starting to get impatient. There was no progress being made so far, unless you counted making contact with a somewhat psychopathic seven-year-old. "Please tell us what happened, we can help you."

If my aunt hadn't taught me how to read people I'd probably be in a loss right now. She'd studied forensic psychology, and consulted people every day. Sometimes she'd tell me about the look in their eyes, the way they stared at the air as if they were expecting something to appear—something to help them.

**_ "Listen, Alexia," she said one day. It was mid-February; we were drinking hot chocolate and watching a Korean drama—a typical Thursday night. "When you meet someone, don't look at anything but their eyes."_**

**_ "Why are you saying this all of a sudden?" I asked._**

**_ "People are one of two things; independent or dependent. Manipulative or submissive. Sort of like science. You have to look at people and analyze their character before they can do the same to you. Like right now, you're thinking that this is a pointless lecture."_**

**_ "…It sort of is…"_**

**_ "But you should keep it in mind either way," she replied. "So, what am I thinking right now?"_**

**_ I faced her and looked her in the eyes for a while. For me, it didn't exactly feel like we were going anywhere. "Uh…"_**

**_ "Concentrate!" she scolded, turning off the television._**

**_ "Hey, Bae was about to tell Feung that—"_**

**_ "Con-cen-trate," she repeated in syllables. Sighing, I tried again._**

**_ "You're worried."_**

**_ "And?"_**

**_ "You…think that I'm not concentrating enough," I deadpanned. "And now you're going to hit me over the head with that marshmallow in your hand…"_**

**_ She laughed out loud. "Well, I was going to if you got it wrong; it seems you're getting the hang of it, though." We spent the rest of the day learning facial expressions and their meanings, and I continued to study it on my own afterwards._**

Although this girl seemed on the brink of a mental breakdown, her eyes displayed something completely contrary to her character—hope. _'Independent or dependent. Manipulative or submissive.'_ She was definitely dependent, relying on others to lead her. It wasn't as if I could just leave her here, either.

"Alright," I started firmly and made her stand. She had shiny auburn hair put in a sloppy ponytail. "If you want to stay out here and never get out then you can remain silent and not tell us what's going on; but if you want us to help you get back to your family you need to start talking."

She stared at me, then looked away and rubbed her red eyes. Sparing a glance at Ulquiorra, she hesitated before answering. "I…got lost and…no one is here…"

"We are here," Ulquiorra suddenly took her hand and led her away before I could object. I stayed in place, on shock of what he'd just done.

"Ulquio…"

The scene was almost impossible to imagine, yet it was undoubtedly happening before my eyes. The little girl had hugged Ulquiorra's left leg, bawling into it and hanging on to him like he was the only one in the world left. His eyes were wide for a few moments (instead of half a second, like he usually did), then they unexpectedly softened and he put a hand on her head, comforting her.

"Th…thank you…," she whimpered.

"You are welcome," he answered curtly. As quickly as he'd let his emotions show, he masked them once again by stepping away from the girl and walking off. What she didn't know that she was supposed to follow him; instead she saw the whole thing as him abandoning her. She started to cry again.

"Hey, you're making it seem like you're leaving her by herself," I warned.

"She knows that you are there. You monitor her, woman. I shall lead the way."

I scoffed. "It's Alexia." Not waiting for him to correct himself, I lifted the girl (who was now back to square one, hiding and sobbing) onto my shoulders and ran off. I passed Ulquiorra and came to the first white ribbon, then untied it and kept going. _Now he _has_ to run_, I inwardly smirked.

The girl's small giggle did not go unnoticed by me. "Having fun?" I asked.

"…mm."

"Don't pretend that I didn't hear you laugh," I let out a chuckle of my own and slowed my pace to readjust her on my shoulders. Her heart was beating frantically, causing me to wonder what was making her so excited. Or afraid.

"That weird guy's gone," she suddenly chimed.

"You mean Ulquiorra?" I said, somewhat annoyed at her reference to him.

"Yes, him."

"I'm sure he's…right behind us…"

He wasn't.

"Well isn't that just great," I said to myself. Taking a deep breath, I called out to him but got no reply. Soon the girl joined me; her attempts were in vain as well.

"Ulquioraaaa!" she screeched, making me sigh. It was bad enough that she was screaming, let alone right next to my ear.

"Hey, you can quiet down now," I said calmly. She didn't listen and continued to yell at the top of her lungs. "Hey, I said its okay."

"ULQUIORRA!"

"Would you please—"

"UL-QUI-ORRAA!"

"Calm down already!" I yelled back (not as loud, of course), then muttered an apology. "Just—please calm yourself."

She didn't answer. For a few seconds I dreaded at the thought that I'd made her recoil back into her shell.

"Helloo?"

"I think I see him," she murmured. "Over there."

The direction she pointed to was opposite of where the white ribbons I'd tied were going. Don't tell me he actually went that way…On cue, the cellphone in my hoodie's pocket vibrated and I immediately unlocked it, seeing the main screen.

New Text From:

Ulquiorra Schiffer

I pressed read and the message came up.

** 'I am waiting. What is prolonging your arrival, woman?'**

Scoffing, I texted back, telling the girl to hang on to my shoulders as I did so. **I lost sight of you.**

** 'I am already out. Make haste, woman.'**

**It's Alexia**, I finished before setting off again, untying the ribbons and even letting the girl undo some. Before long we were clear of the area; the pebbled sidewalk now our path.

"Where is he?" I said. "He said that he was alrea—" I nearly jumped out of my skin (or marioneta, I guess that was the technical term). "Jesus, don't just pop up out of nowhere like that!"

He didn't even glance at me as he lifted the girl off of my shoulders, a knowing look on his face. I asked him if he'd seen anything on his way out. "I asked a few other humans in the area if they'd noticed a small girl missing. Apparently she is the daughter of a family that owns something called a restaurant."

"Your family owns a restaurant?" I asked the girl. She nodded meekly. "What's your name?"

"Makoto," she whispered.

"Okay: how did you get in the forest in the first place, Makoto?"

"Well…," she blinked a few times and took a deep breath, a sign that she wanted to cry. Sitting on the ground and crossing my legs, I let her sit in my lap. It was the least I could do. "I got a little puppy for my birthday. It was so small and…I lost it and I don't know where it went…then I went out here to find it and a car came at the same time the puppy was c-crossing the s-street…"

"Oh."

"Mommy said that things are dead when they don't breathe," she sobbed. "The puppy wasn't moving…daddy sometimes goes to where the dead people are put, in the ground. They dig up a hole and put them in. So…I took the puppy and I put it in the ground—next to my favorite tree."

Her maturity was surprising to me. She couldn't have been older than seven, yet she understood the concept of death more easily than other children at her age usually would. But now wasn't the time to have thought of that. She needed to get back to her parents regardless of what happened. Hugging her, I told her that nothing that had happened was her fault.

"A woman I contacted is the mother of this girl," Ulquiorra informed. "She will arrive in due time."

"Her mother? You found her?" I asked. "What was she like?"

"Similar in appearance to this girl, and she was in hysterics when I told her of her daughter's whereabouts."

"M-mommy's coming here?" Makoto pushed herself out of my embrace and stared wide-eyed at Ulquiorra. We all turned toward the sound of a car's engine, coming towards us. It came to an abrupt stop in front of us and a woman who looked no older than thirty nearly jumped out of the car. Makoto gasped and ran towards her.

"Makoto!" the mother cried, crushing her to her body. They were both crying. _They love each other so much…I wonder if mom was ever like this with me…_

"Alexia," Ulquiorra whispered. "The woman is speaking to you."

"E-excuse me," said person sniffled a bit and smiled, then bowed to us. "Thank you so much, how did you find her?"

"Well, she was in the forest, or woods, and we just sort of saw her," I said timidly. I didn't do well with people thanking me, especially with me not exactly having the choice of leaving the poor girl there (which would be inhumane, mind you).

"She told me that she was going with her dog and she didn't come back; it's been a day since that happened." The mother composed herself as Makoto continued to cry, hanging onto the hem of her mother's skirt. "I can't tell you how happy I am right now."

"Don't worry about it, er…," I started.

"Most people call me Fujika-san, but you can just refer to me as Aka-san," she replied. "After all, you two have done a favor we never could have expected from anyone."

"It's alright, really," I answered. "It isn't like I wasn't going to help her." _All this flattery is starting to get to me, and not in a good way_, I thought with dread.

"Is there a way we can thank you, at all?"

"Oh no, it's alright. You don't have to—"

"Tell you what," she smiled brightly. "I own a restaurant that's close by. I'd be glad to have you dine with us. It'll be on the house; there aren't many people who go there and you two seem to like laid back places, am I right?"

Although I preferred more populated places…how could I say no to free Japanese cuisine?

My stomach agreed, giving a low growl that made me blush. "Well…there's your answer." She laughed and led me to her car, where a man I assumed was her husband was waiting. It was a wonder that he hadn't ran to his daughter as well, he had a grin that somewhat reminded me of Grimmjow's maniac-mode one.

"You're not from here, are you?" Aka asked as we drove off.

"We live in…uh…," I tried to come up with an answer that wouldn't arise other questions. "We're from—"

"Hueco Mundo."

We all turned towards the speaker: Ulquiorra. Trying to disguise my horror, he still saw through my mask and sent a questioning look.

"Where exactly is that?" Aka asked him.

"In—"

"Spain!" I shouted, startling almost everyone. "We're from an extremely small town in Spain! If you looked us up in the web you probably wouldn't find us! Ahahahahaha!"

"You guys know how to speak Spanish, then?" her husband inquired as he made a left turn. "I think Spanish is a very romantic language."

"Yeah." Now this I could do. As soon as they both turned away I snapped my head towards Ulquiorra again, speaking in a hushed whisper. "They don't know anything about that place!"

"What do they know of their future after death?" he replied, not having to whisper because of his smooth, low tone of voice. Makoto giggled, sitting in the middle of us.

"It's a long story that I'm not going to tell you about right now," I gave him a look. He seemed comfortable with being in a car (a.k.a. he wasn't getting sick), looking out the window lazily. We saw the snow-capped mountain rising over the trees. "Did I ever tell you what that landmark is?" I asked.

"You did not tell me, but it is simple to determine what it is."

Oh? "So you know what that is?"

"Yes. A mountain."

I facepalmed. "Clearly. What I meant was if you knew what this mountain's specific name was?"

"No."

"It's called Mount Fuji," I explained. "It's actually a volcano, but it hasn't really had any major eruptions lately."

"I see," he said boredly. I guess it wasn't that interesting to him, seeing as how he had his white sands, dark sky and reversed crescent moon.

"Alright, here we are!" Aka said cheerfully, hopping out of the car and opening the doors for us. "I put the security locks because this little one loves to open doors too much. And I hope you like our food, I know it doesn't look like much on the outside but if anything about this place is worthy of you two it's the food, you know?" She laughed nervously as she noticed the way she was rambling.

The layout of the place was a cross between Urahara's stop and Byakuya's house; a small pond was to the left of the entrance, several lily pads with cherry blossom flowers floating on them.

"We should put the candles out soon," Aka told her husband. I finally got a good look at him.

His hair looked silky and long, put into a lazy ponytail at his neck; the color of his hair was white, so much that I assumed he'd bleached it too many times to count. He had electrifying blue eyes, more so than Grimmjow. His skin was slightly tanned and he smiled warmly at me, dimples appearing.

"Nice to meet you, too," he chuckled and came up to me, holding out his hand. I recovered after a few moments and smiled as well, shaking his hand firmly to not give away the fact that I almost felt intimidated by him. Looking into his eyes, I analyzed what I could. _Straightforward, a bit reckless, mischievous…he's hiding something…_ "You can call me Naoro."

"Let's go inside, shall we?" Aka interrupted my thoughts and I nodded before following, taking Ulquiorra's hand again. I tried to ignore the beating of my heart, slightly quicker than before. Makoto and the man followed after us. "We have a private room here, how about all of us eat together?"

"Yeah, all of us!" Makoto ran between us and jumped up and down excitedly. I couldn't help but laugh at her eagerness.

"Let's. I'll start up with the rest of the cooks." Naoro's tone of voice turned sarcastic. "I'm sure they're busy, but we can get some extra work out of them."

"Come on," I pulled Ulquiorra along and we went to a low, round table. We sat in a seiza position, small cushions keeping us comfortable. The whole room felt cozy, as if we were just gathering at a friends house. I guess it would be alright to consider us friends, but we hadn't even gotten to know each other that well, not to mention the fact that we'd met each other about ten minutes ago.

"How long have you two been here?" Aka asked as she set out the eating utensils: chopsticks. I glanced at Ulquiorra, who was glaring at his as if they were his long-lost nemesis. "Ah, do you want forks or knives instead?"

"Do you have any?" Ulquiorra questioned. She sweat dropped before answering.

"…No. I'm sorry."

"I'll teach him how to use them," I reassured her. "He just doesn't like to adapt to new cultures, but the situation isn't hopeless."

Her spirits seemed at least a little lifted.

As she left, I turned to Ulquiorra and sighed. He blinked. _Looks like he doesn't get the message._

"Listen, Ulquiorra," I said, my tone of voice turning into one of lecturing, "you can't just bother people with this kind of stuff."

"Why not?" he leaned on one shoulder, staring at me with curiosity.

"These people are trying to make us comfortable and you're just pointing out their flaws. Now: if you'd learned how to use these—" I picked up my chopsticks, "—we wouldn't be having this problem. So now I'm going to teach you before you can cause any more inconveniences."

"…"

"Don't look at me like that," I scolded, then proceeded to take his chopsticks and position them in his right hand. "There. Now, try to move them."

They immediately fell out of his hand. _Back to step one._

We were there for about five minutes, just making sure he had a good grip on them. Then we took another ten to get him used to moving them. It had been a bit difficult for me to get the hang of it, too—that is, until I'd seen all the food I could eat with them. Finally, he'd become able enough that he wouldn't drop the chopsticks or food that he picked them up with.

Lucky for us. The food came rushing in, several different dishes with just enough (if not more) food for all five of us. Makoto was the first to rush in, followed by Naoro and Aka.

Barely noticing it now, I saw that there was an inner circle that rotated, easily distributing the food amongst us. I found myself sitting next to Ulquiorra and Aka. Ulquiorra was next to Naoro and Makoto was between her parents.

"Now, let's enjoy this to the fullest!" Aka stated.

"Itakadimasu!" Makoto and Naoro said at the same time. We all looked pretty hungry. Except for Ulquiorra. It seemed he took my words to mind, though, and gave a small nod of agreement.

So much food.

I took small portions of everything, wanting to savor it all. Rice came first; there was more than enough of that. Vegetables and some fruits, fish, sushi. While I nibbled happily, I saw that Ulquiorra only had rice and one small piece of meat. "Ulquiorra, are you alright?"

"Yes."

Scoffing, I took a small bowl and poured in some of the soup. The flavorful smell should've caught his attention but he didn't even glance this way. _Sacrifices must be made._

"Here, there's a spoon off to the side here that you can use if you get tired of using the chopsticks. It's only for the soup, though." While I left him to choose what he wanted to do, I got my own bowl and watched him out of the corner of my eyes. He was holding the bowl up cautiously as if something was going to jump out of it.

"So, how long have you two been together?" Naoro suddenly asked.

God, I nearly spurted out the broth. "W-what?"

He smirked. "Ah, so it's not like that."

"We have known each other for approximately one month," Ulquiorra informed them. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason," he flashed a smile that for some reason reminded me of Aizen's. "Akatora and I have been together ever since—"

"Don't tell me you're going to tell them about that!" Aka(tora?) exclaimed, her face turning red. Whatever he was speaking of must have been extremely embarrassing for her.

"But it was really cute when you got so scared over that little spider…"

"Quiet, you!"

"That's right! Mommy's really scared of spiders!" Makoto put in her two cents. "So when Daddy saved her she loved Daddy!"

"That's basically the summary," Aka said hastily, wanting to change the subject. "How much longer are you two going to stay here?"

"We are departing today," Ulquiorra responded.

"Oh? That's too bad."

"Do you intend to leave this late? Night is nearing; I think it would be best to stay the night and leave in the morning so you can be well rested," Naoro suggested. My mind instantly screamed in protest.

Ulquiorra apparently thought the same. "We have already scheduled our parting, although it is considerate of you to offer a room."

We talked for another hour or so—strange considering that I wasn't exactly talented at keeping up conversation. But Akatora and Naoro had plenty to ask. Eventually, though, we somehow got to an ending point and left. Aka pulled me aside before I could actually say a farewell.

"So you two had fun, right?" she asked seriously. It was strange considering that a question like that would usually be said casually, in a happy manner. "Nothing seemed…strange, to you?"

"…No, why?" I answered, intrigued.

"Well…it's just that Naoro is what you would call a natural flirt," she blushed a bit. "Without realizing it, he could say suggestive things to you but just be doing it out of causality."

_Oh_.

"I wouldn't say that he was flirting, per say…," I struggled to find the right words. Glancing at Ulquiorra, I saw him conversing with Naoro. He looked like a normal human, not an arrancar in a faux body. "But I guess he does make himself noticeable, to put it generally."

"Ah, that's good to hear," she smiled before bowing to me once again. "Maybe you'll come back another time?"

"I'll see what I can do," I agreed. She asked for permission to hug me and I instead gave her an awkward one. Makoto nearly tackled me in a mini-bear hug and Naoro only shook my hand again, nodding at Ulquiorra with a genuine smile.

"They almost seemed too perfect a family," I told Ulquiorra once we were out of sight. We kept walking down a peaceful sidewalk, several small stores lining one side of the street. "What do you think?"

"I do not know."

"Why not?"

"I do not know the experience of having a family, therefore I cannot opinion on their customs."

"I don't see what's wrong with having something to say about a certain topic and not experiencing it yourself," I countered. "After all, you have the logic to analyze what other people are like about that topic."

"…I agree," he said after a few moments. We stopped in front of another store, the last one at the end of the block. I heard him saying something about how that family seemed to be putting up and act (which I couldn't disagree with) but most of my attention was on that store; the windows were covered, not letting me getting a peek of what was inside. Guess that was the point, tempting you to find out what was inside.

Some things were too tempting.

"Another shop, wo—Alexia?" he corrected himself. I could see him getting ready to lean on the wall and wait for me, but I urged him to come with me. Surprisingly, he didn't object.

"It's so nice to see some customers," a elderly man's voice greeted us as the bells above the door rang. "I don't get many these days."

"Woah," I let out a small gasp. You could call the products souvenirs, but I creeping suspicion that there was more of a background to the things this man was selling. "Did you—"

"Make all of this?" he finished my sentence. "You have a good eye."

"Actually, I'm supposed to be wearing glasses…"

He laughed dryly at my humor. "Well, does anything catch your eyes?"

I looked at the shelves. Wooden carvings, dolls, silverware and platters, all handmade…on the top shelves, three boxes sat there, dust gathering on them. "What are those?"

The man got up and slowly made his way next to me, Ulquiorra behind him. Giving Ulquiorra a once-over, he nodded gruffly before climbing a ladder to carry the boxes down (something I wasn't sure and elderly man should've been doing).

"Well, seems I've pretty much forgotten about these," the man recalled, dusting the boxes off. "Took me a long time to make them. Here, take your pick."

I took the the three boxes out of his arms and set them down on what looked like a handcrafted table, making me wonder if he'd made _everything_ by hand. Randomly picking out one of the boxes, I took the item out of it carefully and set it on the table. For once, Ulquiorra seemed a bit intrigued by the mystery objects.

It was a mirror, an octagon framed in mahogany. At first I had thought the frosted glass at the edges was dust, which I tried to clean. Then I saw that the frost made a pattern on the mirror's perimeter, vines creeping to the center and caressing it.

"We have many mirrors," Ulquiorra reminded me, his face reflected in the mirror as well as mine.

"True, but none are like this."

The next one was a music box at least as large as my hand. Winding it up before opening it, I was amazed at the perplexity of the inside, nothing like what I'd imagined. In it was a model of a man playing the piano while three couples danced around him. It was somewhat Western but nevertheless it was impressive. On the inside of the top lid was the word "Overcome." The melody sounded sad and reflective.

The outside was just the right amount of simple and intricate. It seemed to be made out of different stones—black onyx, granite and some emeralds. My breath was nearly taken away from me.

"I can see that that one appeals to you immensely," the man said, spot on.

"How could you make something so detailed and…"

"Years of experience and talent, I guess. Once you do this every day you just get used to it. Comes naturally."

I couldn't wait to see what the third box had in store. It was like Christmas. There was a ton of styrofoam in the last one, leading me to the conclusion that something fragile was being stored. Sure enough, three glass figures were in bubble wrap. The first was an angel holding a harp; the second was a mermaid—the scales of the tail caught off of the light perfectly and made it seem like the underwater shine on a fish. The third figure was that of a warrior, a quiver on its back and a sword being held in both hands. The Roman fighter was a woman, her curly hair hidden by a helmet. "Do you like sculpting women more than men?" I asked the man.

"I tend to do better with their body shape," he explained. "So, which one do you want?"

I gawked at him in disbelief.

"For a fair price, you know."

I felt doubt creep up my throat and I could only shake me head in the negative. "It depends on what the prices are."

"Hm, I'd say this one is two thousand yen," he pointed to the mirror. "The music box is…I'd say 400,000."

My eyes were as wide as saucers. "That's…in U.S. currency, that's…a lot!"

"I will purchase it for you," Ulquiorra offered.

"That's not the point…"

"And these sculptures…I think each one is about six thousand," the man continued, ignoring my surprised outbreak. "So, is there anything that you'd like to buy?"

My eyes kept looking over at the music box. For some reason I felt attracted to it, more than anything else—and it _was_ my birthday. Soon it'd end and I wouldn't have the excuse to buy something so expensive. Add that these credit cards Aizen had given us had the largest amounts of money I'd ever seen. So many zeros…

"No," I said firmly. "You are incredibly talented, but I fear they will…not be taken care of as well as you do. I'm sorry if I've inconvenienced you." For good measure I bowed low to him.

_Why did I just say no?_

"Ah, I'm not good with formalities. Don't worry about it," he smiled genuinely. "How about this fellow? Would you like to purchase something?"

To my surprise, he answered in the affirmative. Telling him that I'd be waiting outside, I left, a guilty feeling coming onto me. I hated when sales persons were always guiding you to buy something but you refused it in the end. It was like laughing at a charity fund.

Horrible, right?

"Alexia," Ulquiorra appeared next to me. In his hand was a small bag. I was curious about it and he noticed it, but I didn't ask. He opened a garganta and asked me if I was ready to leave.

"…Yeah."

Seemed like the fun this week was over.

After arriving in Hueco Mundo, I immediately panicked because I had completely forgotten about the bags of food and other things I'd bought. To my relief, Ulquiorra had sent them through the garganta without my knowing, so they should've been safely deposited in my room.

Now I was on my way back to my room, out of my marioneta (which was safely in Szayel's hands again) and leading myself with the compass. "Hey, Ulqui-cielago," I said to myself, feeling self-conscious. I had never told him about why today was a special day for me. "Today's my birthday." Too straightforward.

"Ulquiorra, do you know what a birthday is? Well, it's the date when a human is born. Well, there are 365 days in a human year, so—no. Dammit.

"Did I ever tell you? September eleventh is my birthday. You know, the day I was born. Every year we celebrate one more year of life; and yesterday was my day."

That seemed better than the rest. I'd been trying to find the right time to tell him throughout the whole day, but there was never a perfect time. Now I'd lost my opportunity. _Guess I'll have to tell him tomorrow._

The melody.

I stopped in my tracks. It was the same tune as the music box. Was I only imagining things, or…?

As I neared my room, the sound increased. My walk changed into a near-sprint. Skidding to a stop in front of my room, my eyes widened at what I saw.

The music box was in the middle of my bed, its melody the only sound in the room. As if in a trance. _Did he…_

"You should have purchased it," his voice was right next to my ear, making me jump. I looked at him with wide eyes. "What are you so surprised about, woman?"

"You actually got it for me?" Despite myself, I felt my eyes start to sting. _Damn, when did I get so soft?_

"Yes. Why do you ask if the answer is obvious?"

What had I planned to say? Something about my birthday and—everything was lost as was shocked by his actions.

"Szayelapporo informed me of what this day's significance is to you. You are supposed to give a gift to the person, are you not?"

"Thank you," I smiled brightly at him. Forcing back my tears of happiness, I got the music box and held it in my hands. I felt like it belonged with me. "I can't imagine a better gift…"

Suddenly an idea hit me. The thought made me blush; was I really ready to tell him? Could I actually form my thoughts and say all of it, without having to stutter or mumble? Did I really want to do this, on a day that had been perfect so far? I got lost in my thoughts, then made a decision.

"Hey…Ulquiorra…"

"What is it, woman?"

Doubt.

How would he react? 'Nonsense, woman.' 'How foolish.' Everything he could possibly say reverberated in my head, making me want to shrink into my shell of secrecy. But I had to do this.

"Ulquiorra…you might not have known this, probably haven't noticed at all, but…"

"What?" I gulped.

"For a long time, I've always admired you. You were so…I don't know. You always seem calm and mature, level-headed. Your eyes are so mesmerizing, everything about you appeals to me—I…"

_Say it._

"I love…"

_All of it._

"Ulquiorra, I love you."

The music box's tune ended. Complete silence followed. Refusing to meet his eyes, I focused on my feet and steadied my breathing. _God, what do I do now?_ After what seemed like an eternity, I took a deep breath and looked into his eyes.

I didn't have to do anything. Without so much as a blink, he turned and left.

**._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.**

Me: So, are you doing any better in math now?

Unbr0ken: Definitely ^_^ I went up from an A- to an A+

Alexia: -_- You know, you weren't that bad in math in the first place…

Me: Come to think of it, how did Grimmjow even know all that stuff?

Grimmjow: Shut it, it's not like I don't know my math because I'm busy kicking people's asses.

Alexia and I: Really?

Unbr0ken: Really, you two don't know anything about him!

Grimmjow: That's a good thing on many levels -.-'

Unbr0ken: Yeah, he only trusts me :D

Me: -.-' Yeah, well…I don't know ._. We shouldn't be trusted either way

Unbr0ken: That reminds me…

Alexia: No!

Unbr0ken and Grimmjow: Why?

Me: Because I need to get started on the next chapter -.-' Until next time, everyone!

Alexia: Good ._. (obviously hiding something)

Grimmjow: That's a really sudden way of ending the rant T_T

Alexia: Well, it's not like we're never going to see the readers again…where's Ulquiorra?

Ulquiorra: Trying to understand calculus…

Alexia and Grimmjow: -.-'

Music box song: Overcome by David Nevue

Song of the week: Volume Up by 4Minute


	22. Think Again

Alexia: So, this 'Song of the Week' thing is official now?

Me: Yeah. It just sorta started out as something that I had on my mind and then I decided to keep going with it…

Unbr0ken: I like it ^_^

Grimmjow: Because these past two weeks had Hyuna in them?

Unbr0ken: You know me well :D

Ulquiorra: I cannot understand what they are saying…

Alexia: It's K-pop. Korean, so that's logical. And the very first song was instrumental.

Me: I have another instrumental song this week _._ Well, I wouldn't call it instrumental because it's sorta…

Unbr0ken: x3 Is it a song by Hyuna?

Me: T_T' No.

Unbr0ken: Nooooooooo! (tackles Grimmjow) How dare you!

Grimmjow: ^_^ There, there, just because they don't appreciate the awesomeness of Hyuna doesn't mean they can't learn to.

Unbr0ken: Thank you, Grimm ^_^, You always understand me.

Grimmjow: (silently mouths to everyone else) Who the heck is Hyuna?

All except Unbr0ken: -.-'

Unbr0ken: (not aware) :3

**SEPTEMBER THIRTEENTH**

_Ulquiorra, I love you._

For the umpteenth time that day, I pondered over what she was thinking when she'd said that. Love? As in the petty thing that humans wrote in novels and babbled on about? It was a difficult to imagine Alexia acting as a character in one of the books I'd read. What did they do? Stutter, blush, lose track of thoughts, obsessively think about the person, stare without realizing…_she does almost all of the above_, I realized. It wasn't to the point of annoyance, but it was noticeable enough.

The fact that I hadn't noticed her behavior before was strange; all the time I'd spent with her and only now did I acknowledge her feelings. What surprised me more was the way she'd expected me to answer her proclamation. There was nothing I could've said.

"Ulquiorra?" Szayelapporo called me to attention.

"What?"

"You don't seem in very good spirits lately."

"That is not for you to decide."

He sighed, submitting. "I guess not; no one can really tell what you're thinking. You do a good job of hiding it."

"Have you finished your assignment?" I asked him. He nodded somewhat tiredly and handed me a stack of papers, along with a small box.

"Ulquiorra, have you noticed anything strange about Alexia?"

"What are you speaking of?" I asked.

"Exactly what I said. Is there anything that happened while she was in the World of the Living that could've affected her behavior?"

"No."

A skeptical look crossed Szayelapporo's features, but he only sighed and dismissed me.

Aizen had asked for a report on the activity in the World of the Living whenever an arrancar ventured to it; I figured it would not be an exception with my visit. All I'd had to do was record what I'd seen and how other humans had reacted to my presence. With the assistance of the marioneta, the former was not necessary; what I'd seen did not make a difference in Aizen's plans. Either way, it only seemed customary to send in a report to him.

"Hey, Ulqui-chan," a silver-haired ex-Soul Reaper appeared by my side.

"Gin."

"Aw, why're ya so cold?" he slung an arm around my shoulder and I brushed it off. "Almost seems like yer angry 'r somethin'."

"…" Although I saw no harm in telling Gin something degrading, he was a superior. He did not act so, but he did have enough common sense to know a limit to his actions. "What do you want, Gin?"

"I can' have company anymore?" he said, eyebrows rising but grin still in place. "Jus' wanted a friend ta spend mah time with."

"You can talk to Luppi," I suggested. "You seem to get along with him well."

"But I wanna spend time with ya."

"I cannot," I replied simply and walked away. His footsteps we're heard, following my every step. "Ichimaru, do you have nothing to spend your time doing—"

"Bein' with y—"

"—which is actually important?" I finished. He used sonido to flash in front of me, unsheathing his sword. On instinct I did the same, parrying his strike. "What are you doing?"

"Yer full o' questions," he did not answer my question. "What're ya thinkin' about, huh?"

"What does it matter to you?"

"So ya _are_ thinkin' o' somethin'," if possible his grin grew wider. "What's it about, huh?"

I stared at him. Feeling the sword in my hands, I imagined impaling him with—

_What am I thinking?_

"Whatsa matter?" he continued to prod in hopes of an answer.

"I do not see the purpose in telling you of my thoughts," I replied. He only let out a loud sigh in response, contrary to his remarks. "Do not bother me further."

It was almost surprising to see that he actually heeded my words, retreating immediately; even offering to take the materials for Lord Aizen off of my hands.

There were few times which I did not have tasks to complete for Lord Aizen; I could not remember the last time I'd had time to myself, less what I'd done during that time.

_Ah, that's right…_

Walking down the outer halls of Las Noches, a small sliver in the walls gave a glimpse of Hueco Mundo's endless sands. I would often wander off on my own account. Before I'd acknowledged Aizen as my Lord. There were also times in which I'd hung around Grimmjow. It was before Lord Aizen had assigned me my rank, in which I'd realized the position a superior had over his subordinates: keeping your image was a top priority that almost all of the espada above me kept in mind, not counting the first, Coyote Stark.

Surveying the area around me, I found no soul nearby and left Las Noches to search the sands.

To search for nothing. What else was there to find in the endless remains of past hollows that had decayed for as long as there were lives being lost? The giant bush that I'd found was something, as I'd learned later on from Szayelapporo, that only appeared once in a few thousand years. It would be quite some time until I could encounter a place such as that for a second time.

It had been a wide expanse of time since I'd felt any kind of weather in Hueco Mundo; therefore, when I felt a breeze in the air I was mildly surprised. The sand around me shifted. In the distance, the skull of a hollow was revealed under the ground. Szayelapporo had also mentioned something that would occur in Hueco Mundo every time a change came about. With Lord Aizen's arrival and his conquering of Hueco Mundo, the incident was bound to happen before the war started. I wondered if I would be there to see it.

Las Noches was visible no matter how far one ventured from it. As I went farther from it, its image seemed like a mirage. Soon I came to the trees that littered Hueco Mundo, made from deceased hollows' condensed spirit energy. _Fragile_, I thought as I snapped the branches of it with my thumb and index finger. They contrasted drastically with the trees in the World of the Living, a variety of bright colors.

Losing track of time, I continued to walk until I could no longer think of anything. It reminded me of my time as a Vasto Lorde, no destination in mind and no questions of what I was doing or why I was doing it.

Suddenly, I heard voices in the distance. Four forms were moving, their shouts disrupting the silence of Hueco Mundo. They were most likely hollows fighting one another. As I started back towards Las Noches, their yells became louder and clearer. They did not seem to be in pain of any sort.

"BWAAAAAAA!" a hooded figure no bigger than a child bawled, heading in my direction at a frantic pace.

The arrancars burst into laughter once they had tackled the smaller one. They were going to eat her in hopes of gaining greater power, now.

Or not.

"Hehe, le's do dat again!' the child arose from the bodies and twirled around to face them. "Dis time I'm da tagger!"

"Let's go, Bawabawa!" a humanoid hollow with tusks ran off, a giant slug-like hollow trailing behind. Another hollow with a large form and masked jumped on top of the slug and got ahead of the humanoid one. The child would most likely catch up hours from now.

Instead she caught up in a matter of seconds.

"Gwah!" the tusked one shouted as she slammed into his side. "You got me, Nel..."

"Now I gotta go get Dondo and Bawa!" she broke into laughter again and set off in a sprint. With surprising speed she reached the slug and blocked its path.

They did not notice my presence until I raised my spiritual pressure. All of them giving a shriek, they turned in my direction, frozen in their path.

"Who's dat?" the small child hid behind the others. "He's scary!"

"Dondochakka...," the humanoid hollow said to the larger one in a warning tone.

"That's Ulquiorra Schiffer, dontcha know!" the other paid no heed. "He's really strong, dontcha know, and he's mean!"

_So this is their impression of me..._

"What are you all doing?" I asked, my usual cold demeanor freezing them further. "Who are you? Answer me."

"Don't worry, Nel!" the tusked one said. "I, Pesche Guatiche, will protect you with his Super Slime!" He shielded her with his form. They looked relaxed at my presence, as if not worried that I could kill them all at any given second.

I turned my back on them, intent on leaving them be and reporting them to Lord Aizen for further instructions. As I looked over my shoulder one last time, all I could make out was a blur before I was thrown onto the ground. _What is the meaning of this?_ "We were playin' a game of eternal tag! Ya wanna join us?"

"NEL!" both of the other arrancars called out to her but she acted as if they did not exist.

"So? Wanna play wit us?"

She grinned, showing canines that were larger than they should have been. Compared to the small girl Alexia and I had met in the World of the Living, this aqua-haired girl was rather...energetic. Showing no signs of getting off of me, she continued to ask if I wanted to join her. I had enough after a few minutes of her prodding.

"You wanna play? Huh? Please? It's really fun! Come on!"

"Retreat from me now, child, before I must force you."

"Huh? So you don't wanna play? Why not?"

"It's okay, Nel!" the humanoid one called out to her once again. "We can play, just the four of us! Just come back here, please!"

"Heed your master's words," I grabbed her by the back of her ragged clothes and set her down before getting off, dusting off a minor amount of the sand that had led its way into my clothes and hair. "I see no purpose in your games."

"Cause it's fun, dummy!" The other two hollows' eyes widened in shock. She had a defiance in her eyes that irked me. A familiar feeling rose in me and I fought it down. "Well? Are you playin' or not?" She stuck her tongue out at me and lowered her eyelid with a finger. That finally got the others in motion; in a blink they grabbed her and ran off, her protests muffled by the mouth covering her hand.

"Foolish," I muttered. Some of the sand had gotten into my eyes, which I tried to rub out but only succeeded in irritating them further.

**'Poor little boy's going to cry? That's pathetic.'**

_Leave._

**'I'm only joking...oh, that's right, you _can't_ joke around! Sorry, my mistake.'**

I tried my best to ignore him as I went back to Las Noches. I had ventured farther than expected and it took me some time to reach it. The halls were quiet. No hollow dared to cause a ruckus like the one I'd just encountered.

In reality I'd only taken about an hour of my time in Hueco Mundo's sands. Menoly and Loly came to me, telling me of Lord Aizen wanting my attendance in the main meeting room. They gave me stern looks (although not in a scolding way) as they followed me to the room.

"Come in, Ulquiorra," Lord Aizen said, sensing my spiritual pressure. The two females followed me inside, the black-haired one's arms crossed.

"Yes, Lord Aizen?" I routinely asked, bowing to him. He beckoned me to sit in the chair across from him and I did so.

"Now, I've seen your report already. It seemed as if you enjoyed yourself," he started.

"…," I did not how to word my answer in a way that would not make it seem as if I was correcting him.

"Or was it Alexia who enjoyed herself?" he suggested. I nodded curtly. I met eyes with him and he smiled. "Well, now that that's done, I'd like to know her behavior as of now."

"Her behavior?" I echoed.

"Yes; in general, if these visits are affecting her mood in either a good or bad way. If her trips aren't changing her attitude towards the arrancar or her superiors I'm afraid I will have to terminate them."

For a split second I had thought he would've said that he wanted to terminate her. Kill her. _What would I do if Lord Aizen ordered me to kill her?_

_I would kill her…wouldn't I?_

As much as I didn't like to think of it, Alexia and I shared a bond. How strong, I could not tell, but it would be difficult to simply cut it. We weren't strangers, and we weren't—what were they called—lovers? As if I was capable of such a thing. But we also weren't allies in battle. There was more to it than I wanted to admit.

_Are we what some would call…friends? No…_

Alexia had crossed a border three days ago, when she'd said those words to me. I still saw her as the same person, but knowing humans, how would she perceive me now?

"Ulquiorra? Is everything all right?" Lord Aizen brought me back to the reality.

"Yes, Lord Aizen."

"So, as I was saying, I have a series of orders for you," he continued, not seeming the least bit skeptical of my lack of attention. "The first is to observe Alexia's overall attitude for the next month or so. The next one concerns your trip to the World of the Living with Yammy."

"Yes, sir?"

"Do you remember Orihime Inoue, the woman whom attempted to battle Yammy?"

The woman came into my mind, her orange hair and hairpins which held her power; then I recalled her powers themselves, the reversal of time. "I remember, my Lord."

"I want you to capture her."

His firm and sudden statement surprised me.

"Not today," he continued. "But there will come a time when I will order you to kidnap her. When that time comes I want you to be prepared to take immediate action. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, my Lord," I replied just as firmly.

"Also, would you mind if Menoly and Loly would take some of your minor tasks off of your hands during these next few weeks? Preparations for the war are going to be made and I need the time and effort of the espada more than ever." Even though it had started as an inquiry, I knew I did not have an option. "I know I can count on you to be my one true loyal espada, can I not?"

"You can, Lord Aizen," I replied as if programmed to do so. I recalled something he had said quite some time ago.

_'Do not trust me. Do not trust these people around you. Do not trust even yourself. Always be aware of betrayal. You will do well to remember that.'_

Although he had said this to the arrancar so many times, I could not bring myself to resist the charismatic behavior and radiating power from him. Especially during these times of near-war, I found that he relied on me as much as he would Kaname Tôsen or Gin Ichimaru.

"Very well, you are excused. All of you," Lord Aizen dismissed us. I stood and bowed to him once again before leaving the meeting room, the other two following once again. After we were out of the room and a distance away I faced them.

"What is it that you two are stalking me for?" I asked, both of them almost crashing into me from the speed they were walking at to be on par with my pace. "Well? Why are you following me?"

"We're supposed to help you," the black haired one, Loly, said. "So, what do you need us to do for you?"

Her eyes held a knowing gaze. Of course; she did do that for me, a few years past…so had the blond-haired one next to her. It disgusted me to think of it. All of it was somewhat my fault.

**'Ah, you're remembering that? You know, it isn't long before you'll have to do it again. It was the only one left.'**

_I will not do it this time_. I knew it was a lie. It never ceased to happen.

**'Well, I'll be waiting a long time to see that happen. Sooner or later you'll be looking for another one that you can—'**

_Leave me._

**'Really, the only one that you haven't done it to is that one woman who's your superior. You know…'**

I thought I told you to leave me.

**'Lust can take over at any time; just remember that.'**

I did not want to remember. "Hey, Ulquiorra, are you listening?" Loly complained in an annoyed tone. I stared at her coldly and then left her there. "Hey, don't just leave me while I'm talking to you!"

"I am your superior. I can kill you when you are talking to me," I said plainly, making her face pale. "Do not speak to your superior in that manner unless you wish to be obliterated, trash."

That word. It always made my mouth taste bitter as I said it, unless I truly meant it. I knew that the only person worthy of being called trash was me. I was the pathetic one whom no one wished to know better. If anything, they wanted to get much distance from me as possible. Looking upon my actions was a painful experience, seeing my own helplessness. No one wanted me.

Except her.

The bond was growing stronger each time I thought of her. How could a mere human have this effect on me? She wasn't even intentionally doing anything to change me or my way of thinking, yet I'd already changed more than I'd realized. There was only one question: how?

Turning my back on them both, I traveled the halls of Las Noches, awaiting to find her somewhere nearby. She was most likely not prepared to encounter me so soon after her confession; I could expect stuttered answers and a flushed face as the maximum progress I would make with her.

The halls were sparse with arrancar today, seeing two or three servants going to and fro, completing tasks from the higher ranked. Some of them offered me a drink or something to eat, which I refused. After trying the food from the World of the Living, the mere pieces of meat and other small snacks which did not have taste to them (courtesy of myself) seemed minuscule and insipid.

A question arose from my mind and I decided to give the two female arrancars a chance to do something worthwhile. Seeking out their spiritual pressure, I ordered them to make preparations for the food today. As if I'd rewarded them they nearly ran off to the immense kitchen in which the servants helped to prepare the food.

"Yo, ya looking fer someone?" Nnoitora appeared from the end of the hall, arrogance in his every step.

"What do you want, Quinta?"

"Straight to the questions, huh?" he responded, a smirk on his face. "What if I don't tell ya?"

"…"

"Nah, that'd be boring. I just wanted to ask how her majesty is."

"Who are you referring to?" I said boredly, already knowing.

"Alexia, who else here is as stuck up as a queen?"

Staring at him for another moment, I spared no time for him and turned around to leave when he used sonido to block my path.

"I'm just a little worried, ya know?"

"Do not get in my way, Nnoitora Gilga." Though the fifth espada was much taller than I was, I looked him in the eyes. There was what seemed like an eternity of silence, two espadas staring each other down.

"Tch." Nnoitora took a step back, but still stood in my way. "Staring isn't going to do shit to me, now is it? You know, I get suspicious when I see that you won't tell anyone anything about what you're doing with her. There something going on between you two?" His full set of piano-teeth showed as he smiled maliciously.

_Would it necessarily cause tremendous consequences to tell him?_ Not if I threatened to kill him afterwards. But I also could not tell the whole truth to him. "She is changing too much of what goes on here and I will not stand for it. If you consider me killing her for the sake of Lord Aizen's army something going on between us then yes, there is something going on."

Nnoitora's smile only got wider. "Ha! So that's what you think of her. Thanks for that tidbit of information. Did you hear that?" He looked over his shoulder, behind a pillar.

"Sure did." A blue-haired arrancar came out of the shadows. He looked at Nnoitora, smiling yet looking at Nnoitora in disgust. "Though, I never thought I'd need help from you. This is pretty interesting. So, tell us more, Ulquiorra."

_Do they want me to kill them both?_

"Grimmjow Jeagerjaques, would you like me to send you to the world of the living so Ichigo Kurosaki can finish what he started?" I allowed some of my anger to slip through, still constraining against the force of the other person trying to gain control. My current feelings weren't enough to make me completely vulnerable. As long as I kept at this rate I would not be in danger.

"You see, that's why I need your help," Grimmjow said, putting an arm around my neck. I calmly grabbed his wrist and flipped him over, onto the floor. "Hey, calm down, prissypants." He got up and faced me this time, careful to keep a distance away from me. "Your pesquisa is more accurate than other espada's, right? That's what I've heard. So, if you could just tell me where Ichigo is, I'll leave you alone."

I did not understand what he was getting at. Lord Aizen had said nothing of Ichigo Kurosaki coming to Hueco Mundo.

"Perhaps if you get out of my field of vision, I shall not kill you. That goes for you as well, Nnoitora," I said, masking my confusion. Although I was not sure of what Grimmjow was speaking of, he still irked me. Confusion and anger mixed made the pressure against me only increase. _Just a few more seconds_, I said to myself. _Then you can kill them._

Grimmjow stepped forward, close to my face. "Even if you're the fourth espada, that doesn't mean a damn thing, Ulquiorra. You better watch your-"

Nnoitora grabbed Grimmjow by the scruff of his neck and brought him up to his face. "Ichigo's mine, you hear? I'm going to kill him, even if you're the one who has something against him. If he's strong enough to almost kill someone like you, I'm not sure if he'll be at my level, but he should be a pretty good fighter, since he fought against the Soul Society once. Don't you dare interfere, you piece of scum."

"Tch! Let go of me, you bastard! The only thing you were supposed to do was call his—" Grimmjow jabbed a finger in my direction, "—goddamn attention! Don't go after someone else's prey, especially if you don't want to die."

I took advantage of the situation. Since they were both at face level...and very close...they wouldn't notice...

I calmly walked over, quietly. They were both fighting now, but not with fists; with words, which was my advantage. _Let's see_, I thought to myself. _Since Nnoitora is the one who is grabbing Grimmjow, I should pull on the spoon-like top of his clothes. Then he'll fall back, and...well, I should wrap it around both of them after I pull, just to be sure, and then...yes, it should work. It will suffice for how much trouble they have caused me. I can save killing them for later._

At one time, I had learned how to go into my release form without all of the ruckus it raised, not thinking I'd need to do that during a battle. I realized at this moment that if you have a useful release form, it could be used in many ways. In a few seconds, I changed into my resurrección, Murciélago, then into its second form and using my tail, I reached over to Nnoitora. Quickly, I grabbed the top of his outfit and tugged, pulling him down. Before both of them had any time to register what had happened, I wrapped my tail around both of them so they both fell down in the same direction. I suppressed a small smile as I saw Grimmjow fall on top of Nnoitora, their lips locking together. Just as quickly as before, I carefully slipped my tail back, turned back to my original form and walked back to where I was originally standing.

For a few seconds, Grimmjow and Nnoitora stayed like that, their eyes wide, from shock of what had just occurred. Suddenly Stark, Szayelapporo and Lilinette Gingerback turned around a corridor path and found those two in an unsettling position, while I stood there watching the whole scene unravel. I quickly took the small smile off of my face, so as not to cause any more strange happenings.

"Well, well, looks like someone got carried away," Szayelapporro Granz noted, a smirk on his face.

"This certainly woke me up. Lilinette, close your eyes. This is a bit too much for you, so—" Stark did not have a chance to finish.

"Ahahaha! I can't believe this! I need to get a camera from the human world to take a picture!" Lilinette exclaimed.

Grimmjow and Nnoitora seemed to finally realize that I was not the only one who saw what had happened. They leapt away from each other and drew their swords.

"You bastard! How dare you do that kind of shit when I'm threatening you!?" Nnoitora yelled at Grimmjow.

"Are you fucking kidding me!? You pulled me down, you shameless asshole!" Grimmjow growled back. "I'm going to cut you so badly, the rest of the Gilga family is going to feel it!"

"I'd like to see you try, bastard! Remember your place, you fucking drag queen!"

"This has nothing to do with drag queens, dumbass!"

"You would know!"

They continued to bicker, distracting the other espada and giving me and opening to escape.

"I swear, I didn't do shit! You were grabbing me by the collar of my shirt, threatening to kill me and then that just happened! You pulled me onto yourself, didn't you!?" Grimmjow tried to explain.

"Yeah, right! Like I would want to kiss a guy like you!"

"So, you would kiss another man?" Szayelapporro inquired, intrigued in the current situation.

"Hell no!" Nnoitora replied all too quickly, rousing even more suspicion.

"Well, the way you said it..." Stark started.

"Yeah, well, that's not what I meant!"

"Why the heck are you blushing?" Lilinette asked, daring enough to ask Nnoitora what the other two wouldn't.

"I'M NOT BLUSHING!"

They all laughed—everyone except the victims. None of them noticed the missing fourth espada. For a few more moments, Jeagerjaques and Gilga continued to be picked on by the others.

"I'm telling you, it wasn't me!" Both Grimmjow and Nnoitora exclaimed simultaneously.

"Oh, so you just magically ended up kissing each other?" Stark proposed.

"How the hell do I know!?" Grimmjow yelled exasperatedly, agitated and not getting anywhere. "All I know is that I was talking to Ulquiorra and Nnoitora got mad at me and grabbed me and...wait..."

I turned around the corner of the corridor and out of sight.

"ULQUIORRA! GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE, YOU BASTARD!" Grimmjow and Nnoitora both shouted at the top of their lungs, their voices echoing in the corridor.

By then I was already too far for them to try looking for me.

What I'd just done was something unacceptable. I was the emotionless, uncaring fourth; no one would credit Grimmjow and Nnoitora if they tried to tell of what I'd done.

Before long I reached the arsenal. I could not remember the last time I'd gone to this place or for what reason. Paying closer attention, I could hear two weapons clashing. _A fight?_

Concealing my spiritual pressure, I opened the door without a sound and wandered in; Alexia and another female arrancar were fighting. They both seemed to be putting up an equal amount of effort, faces hardened with resolve and determination. If I did not notice the way one would retreat once the other lost their footing or was nearly cut, I'd have thought they were having an actual fight and not training.

"Hya!" Alexia yelled out, putting more force into her swing and successfully making her opponent stagger; the female arrancar's sword had handles on both sides, making it easier to block. If not for her weapon she would have a gash on her chest. More questions arose from me. Alexia's opponent is an arrancar, yet said arrancar is being overpowered by her…?

Suddenly, the arrancar overpowered Alexia, delivering an overhead strike by gaining foot on Alexia's sword. Alexia blocked the swing by a hair. She stumbled, then fell to the floor and onto her back. Instead of letting out a groan of pain, she laughed and got back up again. It was then that I noticed the small gash on her forehead, the bruises on her arms and her out-of-breath pants.

"Woman," I called out.

"Round two?" Alexia smiled, wiping some of the blood off of her forehead.

"All right," the female answered, getting into a stance ready to parry. Neither of them acknowledged me.

I decided not to interrupt when I saw them commence their bout. I recognized the female arrancar after the majority of her face was revealed to me: Auria Macras. She charged towards Alexia, then vanished and reappeared behind her. Alexia saw through her move and leapt out of the way just in time. Auria was leading the fight for some moments, whereas Alexia would find a way to parry and get ahead of the other. In the end Auria was stabbed through the shoulderblade, which Alexia hastily apologized for. Instead, Auria commended her for her efforts and regenerated. She must've been one of the few arrancars to keep their regeneration instead of trading it for greater power, such as I had.

"You're pretty good," Auria said, flexing her shoulder after it was healed.

"I wasn't expecting that to happen…," Alexia still held the apologetic tone in her voice.

"Don't worry about it." Auria got a soaked towel and proceeded to clean her face of the sweat that had gathered on her face. Alexia did the same with a different towel, laying down on the floor once she finished. Her cheeks were red and her hair was unorganized; yawning, she got up after a few moments, bidding a farewell to Auria and heading toward the doors.

She noticed me.

Wide eyes, a reddened face, no words. Just as I'd thought.

"Come with me, woman," I turned to leave. She reluctantly followed, staring at her feet and trying to fix her tumble of hair.

"…Where are we going?" she managed to say without stuttering.

"My quarters."

"Can I know why?"

"You shall know soon enough." The espadas' rooms were not far from the arsenal. Letting Alexia in first, I followed and closed the door behind us. Turning after I had closed it, I found her sitting on my bed, her legs crossed.

"I missed your bed," she smiled. Her behavior was unexpected. Recalling the women from the romance novels I thought, _should she be acting this relaxed? She should be flustered, panicking at the thought of being in the same room with someone they apparently 'love.' _I continued to observe her without any conversation. She became uncomfortable under my gaze. _She's no different from anyone else_. "Ulquiorra, is there a reason you're observing me like this? If you're curious I can just answer your questions."

"Quiet, woman," without thinking, I said. Her eyes narrowed and she got up from the bed abruptly. In a few moments I found myself staring into her eyes, our noses nearly touching and her arms on either side of the chair I was sitting on.

"Is this enough for you to observe?" Alexia panted out, her resolve slowly breaking at our close range. Immediately retreating, she said a quick apology and sat down in the chair across from me. Her actions were contrary to what I expected.

"Woman."

"Yeah?"

"How are you?"

"Uh…I'm fine?"

"You do not sound certain of your answer."

"It's not that, just—I don't want to sound mean but—since when do you care if I'm okay or not?"

"Since Lord Aizen gave me an order to observe your attitude and see if your visits to the World of the Living are affecting them, be it in a positive or negative way," I said plainly. Her disappointment was evident. "Why are you upset?"

"Well...I wouldn't say upset as much as…yeah, upset."

She took a pillow and crushed it to her, yawning loudly. Then a look of disgust came upon her features. "Is something wrong?"

"I shouldn't be here."

"..."

"Like, I should be taking a shower instead of being like this. I know I sort of cleaned myself up after that fight but a soaked towel doesn't do much."

"You may take a shower here, if you wish," said plainly. She seemed to become panicked at the thought.

"I couldn't..."

"I see."

"I'll see you later?" she got up suddenly, eager to leave.

"I need you to answer my questions first, woman," I stood in front of the door to prevent her from leaving.

"So you're holding me hostage or something?"

"Technically."

She sighed, giving in. "You're probably going to say no, but do you have any clothes I can wear?"

I glanced at the dresser next to me, which did not go unnoticed by Alexia. My protest went unheeded as she searched through the drawers, opening the one I least wanted her to find.

"Why are these here?" She unfolded one of the female uniforms, an eyebrow raised. My silence only made her more suspicious of me. "Hueco Mundo to Ulquiorra Schiffer?"

"Leave the clothes there, woman," I made a grab for them but she jumped out of reach. I sonidoed behind her and tried to get them again but she ducked out of my way just before my fingertips touched the fabric. Continuing to sonido, she managed to escape at every last moment. Bored of her games, I sped up and caught the clothes right away.

"Hey, they're just clothes," she let out a nervous laugh at the stern glare I sent. "I just…I don't know, I was curious."

"A female used to use these quarters," I replied quickly. If someone could have seen through my lie, it was her. Which was exactly what happened. The change of events wasn't going to come out with the desired outcome I'd visualized in my mind. "You may leave, woman."

She looked at me with concern. _Don't make that face at me_. Her hand went up to trace a trail from my eye to chin. "I'd hug you right now if I wasn't all grimy and…yeah. Sorry. I shouldn't be doing this."

She put her arms around me. The feeling of her heart beating against my chest was the only sound. I'd have to shower, regardless of who made contact with me. "Woman, are you alright?"

Sighing happily, she nodded and let me go. "I'll see you tomorrow, or whenever we get a chance, all right?"

I stared at her. "How can you maintain the same character as before now that you have proclaimed your love for me?"

She stuttered for a second, then laughed as if I was saying something humorous. "It's going to sound strange, but…when I said that, it was like a huge weight was being lifted. Now I just feel like I can do what I want without restraint. Silly, considering that there wasn't really a restraint in the first place."

"It was a burden to have feelings pent up?" I said. She perceived it in a way of my being angry.

"That's not what I meant."

"That was not what I was asking. In general, does keeping your feelings pent up keep amounting to a burden?"

"…Well, yeah. I mean, you would know, too; the experience is a lot worse for you because of _him_. All humans feel some sort of pain from keeping their feelings in for a long time." She made her way to the door, looking over her shoulder one last time to finish her thoughts. "But some thoughts are better kept in, don't you think?"

Her riddle compelled me to think of what she could have meant.

The cellphone I'd left on my dresser vibrated sometime later. It was a message from Alexia.

**'Are you all right with communicating by text when we can't see each other?'**

**How late is it, woman?** I replied. The digital clock at the bottom of the screen said 22:17.

**'About two hours to midnight,' **she answered. **'Why?'**

**I will visit.**

**'What?'**

I was already out of my room. Her room was not far and I knocked, then entered without her consent. She was startled to see me there.

"Why did you come here?" she asked. She was about to sleep, already under the covers of her bed up to her shoulders. Her hair was damp and she had a tired look I hadn't noticed before. After a few moments she sighed and sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Uh...I'm about to drop dead, so if you could just finish what you have to do..."

"I shall spend the night here," I declared; as predicted, her face flushed.

"Why?"

_I do not know myself. _"Lord Aizen has given me orders to observe your behavior, woman."

"I don't think it should go to this extent..."

"I will not do anything inappropriate," I assured. She averted her gaze from mine and pulled the covers over her head.

"Do whatever you want."

"Goodnight."

"..."

"Are you already asleep?"

"...Yeah..."

I sat on her couch after her breathing evened and she was not aware of her environment. It was the first time in quite a while that I'd been able to stay in one place at hours on end. At one point she began to turn in her sleep, her eyebrows creasing. The covers were pulled back enough to see her hands gripping them. I only stayed there, not sure what to do. After some time she finally quieted.

The thought of sleep appealed to me, even if I was a holllow. I felt my eyelids start to close and fell into slumber before I could stop myself.

**_[#]#[#]#[#]#[#]#[#]_**

Alexia: (Looks through a magazine) That time of the year is coming, isn't it?

Me: Ah, Valentine's day…

Unbr0ken: What do you have in mind for it, Alexia?

Alexia: I don't know, I just remembered it because there's this compatibility test here (points to page)

Me: Is that a Shonen Jump magazine?

Unbr0ken: O.O It's a Bleach version…(snatches magazine away) I'm taking it!

[Five minutes later]

All: -_- So…

Alexia: We all got who we wanted O.o I got Ulquiorra.

Me: So did I o.o

Unbr0ken: And I got Grimmjow! \(^_^)/ Should've seen it coming, after all.

Alexia: It just seemed really predictable (Sighs) I wonder…

Ulquiorra: (Reads magazine) What is a compatibility test?

Me: A test to see who you're compatible with romantically -/./-

Ulquiorra: …

Unbr0ken: Don't tell me he's going to—

Alexia: ._. Yep.

Grimmjow: (Pops up outta nowhere) I wanna take the test, too!

[Another five minutes later…]

Grimmjow: …

Ulquiorra: Impossible…(whisperers results to Unbr0ken)

Unbr0ken: O.O You mean…I have a ri—

Grimmjow: No way! This was rigged, just like the 2013 People's Choice Awards!

Alexia and I: O.o

Ulquiorra: (Gives Grimmjow a death glare)

Grimmjow: (Stares back just as icily)

Both: We are _not _compatible T_T

Me: (mental fangirl moment)

Alexia: Uh-huh, suuure -_- (raging a little on the inside) just mention the goddamned song already.

Song of the Week: Castle in the Sky by DJ Satomi


	23. What I Know

Grimmjow: (Thinking)

Unbr0ken: (Munching on cheesecake)

Alexia: Whatcha thinking about?

Grimmjow: Do you think Unbr0ken's in love with me?

Unbr0ken: (Chokes on cheesecake)

Me: Why don't you ask him?

Unbr0ken: (Still choking)

Grimmjow: I dunno.

Unbr0ken: (Face begins to turn purple)

Grimmjow: Oi, Jay?

Unbr0ken: (Gestures towards throat)

Grimmjow: See!? He can't even sit still around me :D

Alexia: I think he's choking O_O

Unbr0ken: (Eyes begin to roll back)

Grimm: NOT Uh! (Gives Unbr0ken a friendly pat on the back)

Unbr0ken: (Spits out cheesecake, gasping for air) I... St... T...

Everyone except me: …Huh?

Unbr0ken: (Still catching breath) I'm sta...

Everyone except me: Speak up!

Unbroken: I'm straight!

Grimmjow: O_O B-but—

Alexia: Oh T_T You didn't know that?

Grimmjow: I…I—

Me: Aha! This is great! (grabs popcorn)

Grimmjow: But the mistletoe!

Unbroken: I didn't ask you to do that T_T

Grimm: The peanut butter!

Unbroken: An innocent observation -_-

Grimm: B-but…

Ulquiorra: It seems like you're confused.

Unbroken: -_- I'm not into cats bro.

Grimm: Ō.Ō?!

Me: (Chokes on my popcorn)

Alexia: Isn't that a contradiction?

Unbr0ken: No T_T I've got a dog as a pet. There's no way. I just…you're not my type. That's all there is to it. That and the fact that I like girls T_T

Grimmjow: (Mental breakdown)

**SEPTEMBER FOURTEENTH**

I was practically a walking skeleton on my way to Alexia's room.

Alexia really needed to get her shit together.

Actually, I needed to get mine together too…but that wasn't the point.

These past two weeks had been a sled going down a hill of snow with hidden rocks; things just popped up everywhere and ruined everything.

First, my arm.

Then, apparently Alexia decided to confess to that emotionless bastard who wouldn't ever give her a good response (which she knew, but still decided to do anyways).

My rank was gone. Now I was replaced by not-sure-if-that-bastard's-a-guy-or-girl. Luppi. Just the thought of him getting my rank and my power made me shudder, the feeling of the nonexistent six on my lower back tingling. I didn't know what the hell Aizen was thinking when he decided to let him take my place; he could've just had one of my fracci—

Oh. They were dead. Nevermind.

Opening the door to her room, I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. She was sleeping, covers down to her waist. That was strange; she never really moved around a lot when she was asleep. She'd told me to stay with her the day she'd told me about confessing (which was only two days ago) and, while she was sleeping, she was as motionless as Ulquiorra's emotions. I decided to go lay down on her couch so I could get some rest myself—for some reason it seemed like I wasn't getting enough lately—

Wait. What the hell was he doing here?

"Mmm…," Alexia arose, stretching her arms back and yawning.

"So…," I started.

"Hm? Oh, it's you…"

"You go on a mental breakdown 'cause of him and now you're having a girls' night?"

"I do not recall ever being a woman, Jeagerjaques," Ulquiorra's eyes snapped open, immediately glaring at me. Or staring. Regardless of which it was, it still pissed me off to see him looking at me like that. I used to be his superior. _Agh, why did Ai-hole have to make him the fourth?_

"And he…hey, come here," she whispered. Rolling my eyes, I spared a second to glare back at the pale bastard before heading over to her. One thing about Alexia was that she was probably the only person who could tame me. So far. The way things were going, I wouldn't be surprised if I started being as loyal as Ulquiorra to everyone. She sighed before mumbling out her answer. "Apparently Aizen wanted him to keep an eye on me to see if these visits to the World of the Living are making me happy or angry or whatever."

"And he's taking it this far?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah…"

"…"

"What?"

"I didn't think you weren't so stupid as to not think that he has an ulterior motive to—ow."

Apparently being the 106th arrancar made me more vulnerable to her weak punches to my shoulder. "I considered that, but I can't think of what that motive might be."

"Maybe he wants to take advantage of you?" I deadpanned, smirking at her red face.

"Whatinthebloodyhellareyou—ahem," her accent went out of control and decided to hide from me, covering herself with the bed sheets. I barely heard her mumbled answer. "You're crazy. And…"

"And what, Sis?" I grinned.

"I don't know!" she suddenly sat up and we bonked heads. "Just don't mention that!"

"You mean se—okay, nevermind," I changed my sentence when I saw her grab the dagger on the dresser next to her. I was now more vulnerable to all forms of violence from her. Lucky me. "So, what're you gonna do today?"

"Eat, sleep, laze around, do pointless stuff and wait four days so I can escape from this place again."

"Sounds like fun," I stopped smirking at her, laying down and putting my hands behind my head. "I don't have much of a day either. You wanna train or something?"

She shook her head. "I was training yesterday with Auria."

_Auria?_ I sat up again, giving her a skeptical look.

"What? It's true. She's, of course, more powerful than I am, but somehow I managed to get up to speed with her."

"I know about her power, it's just…," I tried to find the right words.

"What?"

"Are you sure you didn't get your ass handed to you?"

The blade missed me by a few inches.

"I like how you're not hesitant to stab your brother," I feigned horror, clasping a hand over my chest as if it hurt.

"Oh, shut it," she reluctantly got out of bed and gathered some of her clothes and a towel, going to the bathroom. Panic settled in me.

"Wait, wait, wait," I stopped her from closing the door behind her. She raised and eyebrow at me. "Don't tell me you're going to leave me with _him_."

"Uh…sure?"

I could tell she was still half asleep.

"Are you kidding me? He'll—"

"He's not going to kill you."

"I will die of boredom," I pleaded. She only rolled her eyes.

"Good luck with that."

I really hated when she was like this. And apparently this was her attitude when she _was_ a morning person. She was probably a crazed maniac during the late night, if she wasn't asleep.

"Jeagerjaques."

Ulquiorra calling me like that was strange. Usually he'd say 'Sexta.' That wasn't going to happen until I got my rank back. Which I was going to do, by the way. No way was I going to let Mr. Longsleeves take over forever.

"What do you want?" I mumbled, pulling up the covers of the bed and setting the pillow back-a half-assed attempt at making a bed. Usually the servants would make my bed for me, but now that I wasn't that highly regarded..."Hey," I called out again. He wasn't even looking at me. "You."

"..." His head slowly turned towards me. A chill went up my spine.

"W-what?"

"I should be asking you that question...Jeagerjaques."

Well, he'd pretty much given me the opportunity to ask him, now. "Tell me, what the hell happened to you?" I asked once I heard the water start running in the bathroom. His expression was still the same. "You weren't a stuck up asshole when you used to hang around me."

"You do not know who I am or what I am capable of, trash," he got up to leave but I sonidoed to the door, blocking his way.

"Answer me and then I'll think about letting you leave."

"Do you not understand?" he calmly walked over. In a flash, he was right in front of me, his outstretched hand an inch away from my chest. "Your speed has been depleted, your spiritual power is a fifth of what it used to be and your powers are weaker than a fraccion's. You are weak, Grimmjow."

I immediately let my anger overtake me, my hand at his throat. My attempt at choking him was failing epically, which was stopped altogether when he grabbed my neck and hurled me to the floor. He just stood there for minutes on end, watching me pant for breath. I coughed up blood a few seconds later. I could hear the water stop abruptly.

"You...bastard..."

"What the hell!?" Alexia emerged, her damp hair loose and a towel around her shoulders. Her shirt was a baby blue top that stopped around her mid-torso, with a white shirt underneath and denim jeans. "I can't leave you two alone for five minutes?!"

"He won't kill me, huh?" I smirked and got up from the cold floor, my right eye partially closed because of the pain coming from that side of my head. I grinned at Ulquiorra. "If I was as weak as you said I'd be dead right now. Looks like you were wrong, Cuarto."

"Don't make matters worse," Alexia sent a glare my way. I replied by scoffing, then received a punch on the shoulder. "I'm being serious. Both of you need to learn to not get at each other's throat when you're in the same room."

"He started it!" I pointed at Ulquiorra.

"If I recall, you initiated the fight," Ulquiorra didn't even spare a glance at me, sitting back down on the couch.

"Ugh, whatever."

I stormed out of the room and brought in the cart that was outside of the door. Immediately seeing the dreadful look on Alexia's face, I smirked and put on a presentation for the poor excuse for food.

"Today we have a tasty…uh…whatever it is with some of—er, this shit with some of this stuff. The only thing we know isn't contaminated is the water! Enjoy!"

Alexia was already getting something out of her nightstand. Small triangular packages of what I later realized was rice were set out on her bed. She pondered over which one she should eat before setting all but two back in the drawer.

"Is that even healthy…"

"It's not like a drawer is any different from a kitchen cabinet," she rolled her eyes, unwrapping one triangle and eagerly biting into it.

"Spoiled."

"I know what's best for me."

The only creepy thing about the whole situation was that Ulquiorra was going hardcore with his order. It was as if he was this hidden camera spying on our lives, recording every fucking second of it for his precious lord.

Alexia actually offered a rice triangle to Ulquiorra, which he looked at like it was poisoned especially for him.

"Goddamn, just take it," I snatched it out of Alexia's hand and ate the thing myself, earning myself another glare from my dear sister. Good thing I'd hidden her daggers in a drawer of hers or one of them would be at my throat right now. I made a face when an incredibly sour taste took my senses by surprise. "What the fuck is—"

"A pickled plum," Alexia answered calmly, raising an eyebrow like my reaction was abnormal. "That's the best part."

"Uh, yeah, not," I handed the half-eaten rice back to her and she shrugged before finishing it. "You have the weirdest way of eating," I noticed how she practically nibbled on her food like a mouse.

"Shut up, it's the reason I haven't gained a lot of weight," she snapped. She got up from the bed, pacing around. She regarded her art easel, her violin and her paint before making up her mind, pulling up a chair to the easel and getting a set of pencils. Instead of the larger canvases she was using lately, she took a small one about the size of her head and set it down.

Ulquiorra got up and walked over to Alexia, glancing at me as he did so. I glared and immediately felt an immense pressure on my body; I guess this was what the lower arrancars felt like when they were around an espada.

"What are you doing?" Ulquiorra went down to level with Alexia, peering over her shoulder at what she was drawing. She panicked and then sighed, erasing part of the picture. Mumbling something to Ulquiorra that I couldn't catch, I was about to tell Ulquiorra to leave when he pretty much left of his own account. The only difference was that he spoke to me when he was n the verge of closing the door.

"Come with me, Jeagerjaques," he commanded, leaving the door open for me to follow. I stayed there for a second, not really getting what was happening.

"You should go," Alexia advised, looking over her shoulder one last time before going back to her art.

"...You really want me to get killed, don't you?"

"As long as you try not to irk him, he won't kick your ass."

"You should stop siding with him," I remarked on my way out the door. "You don't know everything about him or half the things he's done." Her drawing hand stopped cold for a second.

Ulquiorra was waiting for me outside of the door. He immediately walked off after seeing me leave the room, expecting me to follow. Not like I have a choice, I thought. After a few minutes of pointless walking we came to his room. I raised an eyebrow at him when he finally turned to acknowledge my existence.

"Are you coming in or not?" He started to close the door on me but I stuck my foot in the door's opening.

"I found it strange that you of all people would let me into their room," I smirked and managed to pry my way in. "You never change, do you? All of your shit's in the same place as the last time I went in here."

He half-heartedly (even though he didn't even have one) pulled out a chair from the table.

"Guess that's where I'm sitting?"

He completely ignored my question and said, "I will ask you a few questions and you will answer then; after I am done you will leave."

"You're crazy if you think that I'm just gonna sit and answer your questions like a sick puppy without getting something in return. For each question you ask and I answer, I get to do the same."

He stared at me for who knows how long, like he was trying to see into my soul or something. Finally nodding after a while, he didn't hesitate to ask his first question.

"Why does Alexia claim to be attracted to me?"

I was expecting that one. "Well, I guess you could say that everything you do, what you look like and how you interact with her made her feel something more than friendship towards you."

"I can assume that. What I am asking is why."

"I don't know," I sighed exasperatedly. "That's something you'd have to ask her. What makes you think that I know this kind of stuff?"

"I also assumed that if there was anyone whom she would tell about her confession it would be you."

He was right about that. "Alright, what was with that stunt you pulled yesterday?" a cross-popping vein appeared on my forehead. A cross between a look of cluelessness and caring was on his face.

"...A stunt?"

God, he was so dense sometimes.

"Don't tell me that you don't remember..."

"Are you referring to my actions yesterday in which no one believed you or Nnoitora?"

Thank god. I didn't want to have to verbally explain what he'd done. "So, why the hell did you do it?"

"You did not expect to get away with acquiring information from me and wasting my time without a consequence, did you?"

"Geez, you make it seem like I was planning to kill your dear lord."

"...What do you hold against Lord Aizen?" asked Ulquiorra. He glared when I scoffed at his question.

"You blind or something?"

"What do you mean?"

"I can't believe you. You haven't seen through his act? We're not an army; we're his pawns, and you're his queen."

"..."

"And I meant to offend you in every way by saying that," I continued. "Halibel's like you, too: she thinks she owes him because he saved her ass or something."

"Is that not reason enough?"

"He might've helped you, but that's only because he has an ulterior motive. It's sorta like Hitler, he put a whole bunch of people under his control to get what he wanted, making them believe they had reason to follow him."

"Hitler?"

I sighed once again. "Just—forget it. So, what are you planning to do about Alexia's feelings towards you? You're not a person to handle them very well…"

"…," for once he seemed sincerely thoughtful. The silence dragged on for so long that I thought he might've forgotten what my question was.

"You have to give me an answer, you know."

"Grimmjow…what is it like to love?" Ulquiorra's eyebrows furrowed a bit. When I didn't answer right away (partially because he'd said my first name and also because of his question overall) he repeated it. My mind drifted to Auria. I'd be lying if I didn't feel anything for her.

"It's like…damn it, you always have to ask questions that are hard to answer," I leaned back into the chair and ran a hand through my hair. "Are you thinking that you might…?"

"I do not know, but I do not feel the same emotions as she does."

Well, that clears up shit.

"Just try not to do or say anything that'll make her go into a deep depression unless you want to get your ass handed to you," I warned. His replying glare was ignored. "I don't care if you have no experience, don't hurt her."

"Grimmjow, are you going to tell her?" he suddenly changed the subject, so suddenly that I was in half-shock for a few seconds. "You and the women whom I've used know. Do you intend on informing her of my past actions?"

Damn, I hadn't thought of that. That in itself would hurt her, and we couldn't keep it a secret from her if she really did like him. But between telling her and keeping quiet…

"You need to tell her," I said firmly, "at the right time. I can't tell her about what you've done. After all, I don't know who you are anymore, right?"

Bad move: a remark about something he'd said that went against him. Repeated in his face. His spiritual pressure focused on me, my vision getting blurry in the corners.

His voice sounded venomous, but it could've just been my imagination. "If you assume that I derived pleasure from doing such disgusting things, you are wrong to the point of exhaustion, Grimmjow Jeagerjaques. And to answer your question, yes, you do not know who I am." His pressure slowly faded away, leaving me to wonder what the first part of what he'd said meant. He got up and almost seemed in a hurry to get to the bathroom.

Sighing, I realized that nothing productive had come out of this.

After what seemed like too much time, I hesitated before knocking on the bathroom door; it creaked open._ It wasn't even completely closed in the first place_, I thought, a bit suspicious (not worried) about his actions. _What exactly is he—_

"What the hell?" I murmured. Ulquiorra was practically kneeling on the granite floor. His hands should've been in the pockets of his hakama but were instead fisted so tightly in his lap that I could see blood flowing through his fingers. There were small changes in him; one of his hand's nails (I was still wondering why they were colored in the first place) were a blood-ish type of color. With my view of the top of his head, I could see that the part of the hair near the roots was white. _I know this guy doesn't dye his hair._ Then I saw that his body was incredibly tense, like if he moved a muscle something would possess him.

_Oh shit._

"Fuck," I muttered, leaning down to get level with him. "How do you stop this from happening? Damn it, is there even a cure?"

His head lifted up little by little. Somehow his skin looked even paler than usual. Opening his eyes, I saw that one of them was also crimson and the other was still green. His black-nailed hand pointed to the mirror above the sink and I understood.

I felt like I was some sort of doctor. A really bad doctor that took forever to find a way to open the cabinet/mirror.

There were two small containers, both of them containing pills that looked exactly the same. I muttered a few incoherent curses and took both, setting them in front of Ulquiorra which it was. He pointed to one and I frantically screwed the lid off. He put two into his mouth while I filled a cup with water. _Now isn't the time to be a germaphobe_, I filled what probably was a rinsing cup with ice cold water up to the brim, spilling some on my way back to him.

"Drink it," I pretty much shoved the cup into his hands and in less than a few seconds he drank all of it. I sighed, starting to relax but knowing that those pills wouldn't take effect right away.

I don't know why I stayed with the bastard, but a voice in my head (most probably Alexia's) told me to stay a while longer._ I can imagine Alexia bawling her eyes out right now_. Ulquiorra finally got up from the floor as if nothing had happened.

Emotionless mask: check.

Ignoring my presence: double check.

Ordering me to leave his room after I'd pretty much saved his life: check and check again.

"If you so much as breathe a word of what happened this moment I will make your death seem anything but accidental," he warned me when I stood outside the entrance to his room.

"But you know what this means, don't you?" I crossed my arms. "I don't care if your emotions aren't in control because of that crazy guy in your head, the fact is that she's affecting you."

"I already comprehend that," he replied, almost shutting the door in my face as I left. Once again, I stopped him, giving him a final smirk.

"Just so you know, I approve of her liking you." I closed the door myself. I chuckled on my way down the hall; _last laugh goes to me, Schiffer._

Even though (from what I'd last heard) we were going to set things in motion soon, all the war preparations and such, the atmosphere in Las Noches seemed more comfortable lately. Well, not comfortable so much as laid back. I couldn't even remember when—if at all—was the last time I'd felt relaxed.

So, I pretty much slept the whole damn day, until someone decided to wake me up hours later. I was going to cuss the person out (apparently I wasn't a get-up-from-an-eternal-nap person, quote from Alexia) when I saw who exactly was at my door.

"Hey…," for a second my mind was frozen. _I know the name of that blond-haired girl—ugh, what the hell is it?!_ "Hey there, uh…"

"You don't like waking up from naps, do you?" the girl let out a refreshing laugh. _I know those eyes!_ "I just bought some food, if you're hungry. For some reason, these past two days, the food's looked a little different than usual."

I watched as she set the tray down, still going insane because I couldn't remember her damn—

"AURIA!"

She jolted, almost knocking over a plate. "I-i'm sorry?"

"That's your name!" I pointed a finger at her.

"Um, yes…it is."

I smacked my forehead. "Of course it is," I muttered, then upped my voice to tell her, "Don't worry about it."

"Did you forget my name or something?"

She had to be telepathic.

"…No…"

"I'm taking that as a yes?" she smiled warmly. She'd been visiting me almost every day now, be it for seconds or hours; she never stayed too long, though. Something was different about her today; she wasn't shy around me and she didn't find it difficult to be around me. I wonder…

"Did Aizen wipe your memory?"

Her hands froze. She glanced back quickly before replying.

"No."

I wanted to think it was a lie, but she said it with no hint of lying. Great, now I felt bad for saying that. "I just…thought I could act more comfortably with you is all," she murmured. I couldn't see her face but I guessed that she was either sad or mad. The former seemed more likely with her, although she had her stern side.

"Listen, I didn't mean it as a bad thing," I got up and apologized. She only shook her head, which I knew too well. "Don't be offended, it's just that you—well, you haven't really warmed up to me this much in who knows how many years. And it feels, I don't know, strange to see that you're starting to act like you used to around me."

She turned a bit and I could see the small smile tugging at her lips. I smirked.

"You think you can fall in love with me again?" I teased, sonidoing in front of her, across the table. She blushed only a little.

"Depends," she raised an eyebrow.

"On what?"

"Just how much you love me," she continued, making a tangled web for herself. "If you can make me fall in love with you again it just proves that our love is what you call 'fate'."

"But you love me, right?" I leaned across the table to look her in the eyes. She averted her gaze from mine and tried not to blush. "You obviously wouldn't if you're saying that you want me to gain your love again."

"You wouldn't know," she took a step back, her smile gaining more confidence. _This is the girl I used to know; there she is._ "Hey, let's play a game of tag."

She disappeared. "Eh?"

I felt someone's breath on my neck and goosebumps immediately appeared on my skin.

"Catch me if you can, Grimmjow," she whispered playfully into my ear.

"I will, believe me."

I swiveled around but she wasn't there anymore. I could sense her spiritual pressure outside of the door, which I swung open without hesitation. Sprinting down the corridors, I zeroed in on her presence and picked up speed. Although, the speed I'd had before made my speed now look like a baby's first steps.

Her beautiful laughter carried through the hall, making me think that I was closer to her than before. I saw her at the end of the hall, waving at me. _What the hell?_

Her image flickered and disappeared.

My eyes went wide. _No way!_

Her spiritual pressure, once I focused on it again, was going the opposite way. I took a second to commend her for fooling me and then ran after her again. That stunt she'd pulled was something that only a select few arrancars could. _What was it called? Something with an M…_

Deciding not to ponder on it, I set to finding her again. This time I felt her presence actually coming closer to me. I lowered my spiritual pressure to the lowest point possible and instead sneaked around. Soon I found her walking one of the halls, humming to herself with her hands folded behind her back.

I'm not sure what about her had caught my attention. She was about five-foot-four, fair skinned, had blond hair and—her eyes were a glowing green that I'd never seen before. Her higher-than-usual cheekbones gave away her mixed blood (Korean and Russian, which gave her blond hair and higher cheekbones, perfect in my opinion) and her lips—

_What the hell am I thinking_, my eyebrows furrowed. Without being found out, I walked behind her. She seemed so happy, despite the way that she was brought to this place. My hand reached out and was about to settle on her shoulder when she started to talk to herself.

"Grimmjow," she murmured, closing her eyes and smiling. "I remember."

For a moment I thought she'd found out about my obvious hiding spot behind her, but she didn't act like it.

"The dreams reminded me of you, the way that you would look at me. Sometimes you'd…try and wake me up, but I always woke up before you did. We walked around so much and when I got tired you wouldn't carry me; you'd tell me to man up and walk. Then we'd take whatever money we had and go to McDonalds, get a medium fries, coke and a Big Mac to share between us.

"Wherever we slept, you insisted on getting a piece of cardboard for me to lay down on so I wouldn't get dirty," she shook her head. "Then you'd hold me in your arms and tell me about how big our house was going to be and how we were going to have tons of kids, you'd have a job as an engineer and I'd be a chef.

"It seems so far away," her smile faded and she fought the urge to cry. "I don't know why I couldn't remember before, but now I know why you looked at me with so much hate when all I remembered was Alexia." Then she sighed to herself. "So, Auria, why didn't you tell him this when you went to visit him? Instead you used a lame plan to run away."

_So she was going to tell me all this? _I thought with an inward chuckle. _You're not one to go through with your plans. Not if it's unimportant._

"You'll tell him next time," she assured herself. "If not, you'll force yourself to stay with him until you muster up the courage to do it."

"Oh, I don't think that's necessary," I wrapped my arms around her once relaxed shoulders, making her stiff as a statue as she stopped in her tracks.

"G-g-grimmjow!?"

"It's nice to know that you think so obsessively about me," I smirked. "But why didn't you tell me about your dreams?"

"You distracted me," she started to struggle against me and made attempts to pry my arms off but didn't succeed. She realized it, too, with a sigh.

"You love me," I stated.

"How can you just say that?"

"As if your little speech wasn't enough evidence."

"…"

"I don't understand why you don't want to just accept it. It's not like people can resist me for long, anyways." I started to steer her towards my room again and she reluctantly followed. "So, what's new with you?"

"I'm being kidnapped by my former boyfriend…"

"Which you're not exactly protesting about."

She remained silent.

When we made it to my room she once again tried to get away but I practically dragged her into my room and plopped her down in a chair while I sat in the other, across the small table.

"That was a pretty neat stunt you pulled back there," I let my chin rest on my palm. "Didn't know you knew how to do that."

"When I inserted an hologram of me with remnants of my spiritual pressure to create the illusion that my actual presence was there instead of my true location?"

"…You sounded sorta smart for a second, there."

I laughed at her half-hearted glare. "That's called 'residuo', meaning remnant. I knew that it was rare for arrancar to be able to do that so I decided not to tell anyone about it." She was still a little nervous about me and looked like she wanted to leave.

"How long have you been having the dreams?" I changed the subject. She thought about it for a few seconds.

"…Two weeks ago? Maybe three. I'm just wondering why everything is happening now instead of years ago. And you, how did you find out that Alexia was related to you?"

"I started having dreams, too," I formed an idea in my head. "Do you think that Alexia has something to do with it? Remembering our past, I mean; my memories came back to me after I spent some time with her." I wasn't exactly keen on telling Auria what I did with her. "When did you spend time with Alexia?"

"Around the same time," her eyes widened a bit. "She might have something to do with it…or it could just be a coincidence."

"It can't be."

"We should go ask her," she got up from her chair, intent on getting answers. At least, that's what she wanted me to think. She saw the look I was giving her and some of her confidence broke away. "What?"

"You're not going anywhere."

"Y-you can't hold me hostage," she turned her back and headed to the door but I sonidoed in front of it, giving me a sense of deja vu. "Let me out of…here…"

"You don't really want to leave," I smirked.

"Y-yes, I do…"

"You're really bad at protesting."

"Quiet, you."

We stood like that for a while, her looking me in the eyes not-so-defiantly and waiting for me to move so she could leave; me in place like a guardian of the door, not letting her pass. She had the cutest pout on her lips.

"Please let me go?"

"Nope," I broke out into laughter. "Sorry, sweetheart."

I couldn't stand it anymore. Everything was in place, it only seemed right. Just as she was about to retort to me, my hand took her chin and lifted it, leaning down to lay a kiss on her perfect lips.

Auria's eyes were so wide I thought they might jump out of their sockets. At first she fought me, pounding against my chest for a short while. Even though my kiss wasn't forced, she never found the strength to separate our lips. Finally, she calmed down and, closing her eyes, slowly started to respond. After a minute or two I ran my tongue along her bottom lip and she let me invade her mouth. Her arms were on either side of my head, pressing our lips further together. _Didn't know she was this eager_, I smirked into the kiss.

Even though I wanted to go further, she somehow found it in her to stop and we slowed down, catching our breath.

"It's been too long," I breathed out, my forehead pressed against hers.

"I…yeah," she managed to say.

"You sure you don't love me?"

"If it isn't obvious enough," she breathed out a laugh.

"Hey!"

We both snapped out of our moment, my face now wearing a scowl. I turned to the door and yelled, "Who the hell is it!?"

"I have something to settle with you!" his annoying voice continued to yell.

"Shut it, Gilga, I told you that Ulquiorra did it and if you don't believe me you can ask him!"

"You think I have the time for that?!"

"You obviously do if you took the time to look for me," I muttered. Auria looked at the scene curiously and I smiled, not liking how this was all turning out. I turned to her and motioned her closer. "Listen, I need you do help me out with this. I'm not completely sure it'll work, but I just need you to act it out."

"Um, that depends on what exactly you want me to do," she raised an eyebrow. "I have my limits."

"I realized that," I looked at her lips and saw her blush.

"Okay, what are you thinking of doing?" she asked, eager to change the subject. She was even more embarrassed when I told her my plan. "That isn't going to work!"

"I said that there's a chance," I indirectly pleaded. "Help me out."

Sighing, she thought about it for too long. We might as well have been taking a nap while Nnoitora threatened to kill me.

"Fine, I'll help. But I get something in return that I'm not going to tell you until our mission is accomplished."

"Great," I grinned.

"Don't grin like that when we're about to do this…"

I went to the door and expected Auria to get ready. Nnoitora was practically leaning on the door, so it came as no surprise that I had a hard time opening it while trying not to let him slam the door open.

"Hey, I'm sorta busy right now," I started. "Uh, leave a message and I'll get back to you when I can…"

"What the fuck are you talking about?" he almost opened the door on me but I held my ground.

"I'm busy right now, Gilga," I found it in me to blush a bit (somewhere in the depths of my soul?). "I'll settle this later, but I don't have time for this right now."

"Open the goddamn door," Nnoitora hissed and, against what I apparently wanted, slammed the door open. His eyes instantly widened at what he saw. Turning to face in the same direction as he was, I instantly knew why.

Auria had gotten under the covers of my bed and—me not knowing if she legit did it or not—slipped her clothing over her shoulders to make them seem bare. The sheets let an good expanse of her leg show and she panted out slowly. Her short hair was billowed out, some of it covering her face sloppily. Although she was bad at acting, I had to give her some credit (for those wondering, her panting sounded like a dying manatee).

"Alright, now get out," I steered Nnoitora out of the room—he was still in shock—and shut the door behind us, locking it.

"Good thing it worked right away, I couldn't hold that kind of pose for long," Auria sighed and when I turned she already had her uniform on again but was only starting to get up again. I wasted no time in sonidoing to her and pinning her down. She gave a small squeal but didn't seem too surprised. "I knew you had some ulterior motive to me doing that."

"Nope," I grinned. "But I didn't know you were so willing to tempt me like that." I leaned down to kiss her but she spoke before I could.

"You can't kiss me."

"What?"

"That's my condition," she smiled brightly, knowing I wouldn't like it. Damn her. Giving her a playful glare I let go of her wrist and let her relax. "I should probably get going…"

"Are you sure you want to leave me here, alone?"

"Shut up," she sat up and gave me a kiss on my temple, then sonidoed to the door.

"Isn't that more of a guy-to-girl thing?" I asked.

"Not in my world," she smiled before disappearing once again.

_Holy shit_, I thought, chuckling. _Who knew she still had that side to her…_

I only decided to see Alexia before I dropped like a two-ton whale out of courtesy; Ulquiorra and I had pretty much abandoned her, and I was almost certain Ulquiorra wasn't there now.

Once there I saw that she was getting ready to sleep (which I would've loved to be doing) and asked her about the picture she'd drawn; it wasn't on the easel anymore. Alexia completely ignored me and said she was going to the bathroom to brush her teeth while I raised an eyebrow at her. Once she was inside, I looked at her dresser drawers.

She wasn't here…I could probably search her dresser in no time at all. The bathroom door made a noise, but I realized she was just locking the door. In a flash I opened up a random drawer and immediately found the stack of her artwork, looking through them. Some of them were just scenes; a riverbank, forest or snow-capped mountain. Then I saw that there were drawings of people, some of which I recognized. There I was. Some (more than I thought was healthy) portrayed Ulquiorra and others were me. There were a few that I couldn't recognize, like a guy with black hair that had these clips in them, making bangs. I saw his neutral face expression and was reminded of Ulquiorra. Another was a girl with chin-length black hair that had braids in the back. It was a full body picture, letting me see the girl's lithe form and sword sheathed at the end of her braids. Her eyes were stern. "You sure like drawing serious people," I muttered under my breath.

The last picture, after countless portraits of nameless faces, was at the bottom of the pile. I knew from the size of it that it was the one she'd been working on today. Expecting something lovey-dovey (for the oh-so-happy occasion), I was surprised by what was there.

It wasn't necessarily a rough sketch, but even with that fact I couldn't completely understand what was going on. It was in the point of view of an overlay, as if something above were looking down on the scene. Dark _things _(for lack of better words) were surrounding the edges of the paper, their hands reaching out to the middle. The creatures themselves weren't what made me worried.

Alexia was in the center.

She looked dead; her limbs were weak and bloody, dried tears went down the side of her face and her eyes were drained of their color and shine. Grime and dirt littered her face, her lips were chapped and her hair was in clumps.

"H-hey!" Alexia appeared and tried to snatch the drawing away but I sonidoed out of reach. For some reason I felt a surge of anger.

"What the hell is this?" I didn't realize how harsh I sounded. "You drew yourself like this? Why the hell would you do that?"

She bit her lip. "It's…a dream I had."

My anger evolved into confusion. "What kind of dream is that?"

"I don't know!" this time it was her turn to be angry. "I can't control my dreams; I'm not a lucid dreamer."

No wonder she was so awkward today, I thought. She refused to look me in the eyes and I sighed, running a hand through my hair.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you right away…," she apologized, eyeing the picture. I gave it to her. "I just…it was really weird."

"Since when did you have this dream?" I asked.

"Today."

It couldn't be helped. I didn't get any details about what exactly happened in the dream, but I could tell it had shaken her up. I stayed with her until she fell asleep once again, and once I'd seen that she didn't seem to be having another dream I left her. An uneasy feeling settled in my stomach. Having a dream like that couldn't have been anything good for her. Hopefully she'd never have to encounter it again.

**/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/**

Grimmjow: (Sulking)

Alexia: What in the hell is he—

Unbr0ken: All I said was that I didn't like guys, geez T_T

Ulquiorra: I suppose that's his reason…

Grimmjow: I don't get it! (Picks up random brown chihuahua) how can he prefer _this_ over me?!

Unbr0ken: Omg, Angel! (Takes his pet dog out of Grimmjow's hands)Where were you?

Grimmjow: (On a cold and desolate iceberg) •-•

Unbr0ken: Um, even if I was gay, you're not my type Grimm T_T I believe I already said this before. Besides, you're just pissed because you think _everyone_ thinks you're "Sexy".

Ulquiorra: Define the word sexy.

Unbr0ken: :D

Alexia: Oh god -_-

Unbr0ken: (Shows Ulquiorra Beyonce's half time performance at the Super Bowl)

Ulquiorra: Ah. So it would be correct to say Alexia thinks I'm sexy?

Unbr0ken: (Imagines Ulquiorra doing the single ladies dance) HAHAHAHAHAH (grabs laptop)

Alexia: Oh, no!

Me: Don't you dare!

Unbr0ken: ~Crops a picture of Ulquiorra's face and uploads Beyonce's Single Ladies music video~ :D

Alexia: You wouldn't Ò.Ó

Me: Just did! (Already has 50,000,000,000 views) xD

Alexia and I: x_x

Alexia: (Regains consciousness and ignores Grimmjow's sulking) What's the song of the week?

Unbr0ken: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Me: (Glances at grimmjow) You're So Gay by Katy Perry.

Ulquiorra: Hmm, this dance intrigues me.

Everyone: O_O

—_This week's rant courtesy of Unbr0ken (and some of my collaboration) ^_^_

Song of the Week: Ur So Gay by Katy Perry


	24. Take Your Chances

Unbr0ken: Has anyone seen Grimmjow?

Alexia: No, why?

Unbr0ken: He sent me an invitation to something called The Hueco Mundo Host club.

Ulquiorra: I received an invitation as well.

Kouki: So did I. . .

Everyone except Unbr0ken and I: (Stares at Kouki)

Kouki: What?

Everyone except Unbr0ken and I: Who are you?

Kouki: I—

Unbr0ken: He's my OC! Don't look, touch, or breathe near him unless you're sterilized :)

Alexia: (Whistling)

Me: Did you—

Alexia: •-• Nope.

Me: (Shakes head)

Grimmjow: Okay, what the fuck is this? A host club?

Alexia: (Smirks) I know some stuff about them, if it'll help ^_^ Now, I need you all to get in a line.

Luppi: Don't forget me!

Everyone else: -_- Him too?

Stark: I got one, too…

Me: Oh, hey Stark :)

Alexia: Okay, so—(brings out chalkboard) the typical host club has five different types of people in them. There's—

Unbr0ken: (Jammin' to Super Bass by Nicki Minaj with Kouki)

Alexia: (tries to ignore) there's—

Unbr0ken & Kouki: THIS ONE IS FOR THE GIRLS IN THE BOOMIN SYSTEM TOP DOWN AC WITH THE COOLA SYSTEM!

Alexia: ~Rage~

Me: (Unrolls duct tape)

Unbr0ken and Kouki: WHEN HE COME up in the club, he be blazin'…up…

Alexia: Save it for later -.-

Ulquiorra: Continue.

Alexia: -/./- O-ok, so we have the lolita boy, the cool type, the strong and silent one, the king and the brotherly loved.

Unbr0ken: Strong and silent?

(Everyone looks at Stark)

Stark: I guess…

Alexia: (Writes "Stark=Strong and Silent" on chalkboard) uh…yeah, I don't know where the rest of you would fit yet.

Kouki: (Smirks)

Alexia: -/-

Me: Read while we come up with the results for you ^_^ see you guys soon.

**SEPTEMBER EIGHTEENTH**

From the moment I woke up, I knew that today would be a good day.

I had the whole day planned out—maybe that helped (mental facepalm for me). A rare occurrence, I even woke up earlier than usual and decided to go to Szayel's lab early.

Feka had been acting up lately. Clue one: she was sleeping in normal places. Clue two: the food that I gave to her, the bland food I should've been eating but wasn't thanks to my purchases from Tokyo, was being abandoned. Usually she left the plate free of any traces of any substances. And clue three: she'd gotten a bit hostile, giving me a scratch on my cheek that was more than obvious. The only way I could cover it up was by parting my hair over it.

Yesterday night I'd finally made the decision to bring her back to Szayel's lab, hoping he'd be able to figure out what was wrong. Without her in my room it'd felt empty. Grimmjow visited less than usual; but I knew that he was spending time with Auria. It made me happy to see that he was slowly building up his relationship with her again.

"Alexia," Szayel greeted me, surprise evident in his voice. "It's early for you to be here."

"Well, I have made a schedule for myself—for once," I muttered the last part under my breath. "So I guess my excitement woke me up."

"You seem to be excited, you forgot to change into an actual outfit." He eyes my pajamas, a button-up shirt and pants vertically striped in white and black with pink trim. They were incredibly soft to sleep in.

"No, it's just that—you know, since we're going into a marioneta—I decided that it didn't matter whether I changed into an outfit or not."

"It'll be a while before Ulquiorra gets here," Szayel proceeded to get me a glass of water and I took it gratefully. My hunger was starting to kick in. Maybe eating the food here was a good idea, since my stomach never begged for food when I ate it. "Have you eaten?"

"No, but I was thinking that I'd go eat in the World of the Living."

"Where are you planning to go, then?"

"Puerto Vallarta."

He went over to a globe; I didn't know if it was the one I was going to use or just your everyday globe. "Puerto Vallarta, Mexico?"

I imagined the warm temperatures this time of year, the music, the food. People would be making sculptures in the sand and there'd be a good handful of tourists on boats. Mountains flushed with green would rise in the distance. Dozens of taxis would be in the downtown area, waiting for us to claim one and take us to our destination. Street vendors selling clothes, jewelry, toys, fruit and candies would be settled on the bank of the river. The beach would have a perfect number of people, almost everyone enjoying themselves.

"Yes," I murmured. "That's the place."

"You seem to have an attachment to it. Did you live there?"

"No," I shook my head. "But my parents took me when on a business trip and we stayed there for about six months. It's a beautiful place."

"Do you think Ulquiorra would like it?"

I thought about it for a second. "There's a fair amount of people, but it's not packed…the people there are generally considerate and like socializing. Uh…the food's really good…"

"Alexia, it's Ulquiorra we're talking about, remember?"

Ah, right.

"I think he'll like it more than Tokyo, but I'm not sure if he'll actually take a real liking to it," I sighed. "I think he'd live in the country if he got the chance."

"How about you?"

"I hate the country." I shuddered. "Too desolate and silent, rural, uneventful; I'd rather be in a place with people, and a lot of them. Not to the point of bizarreness, but you get what I'm saying."

"A nice suburb would suit me," Szayel voiced his own opinion. "A mediocre number of people, enough privacy, peacefulness. It isn't a busy lifestyle that saves no time for experimenting or a place where there aren't the sufficient components to be able to experiment."

"Science comes first for you," I smiled. He nodded in approval.

"I'll be back," he left go to do something. He seemed more occupied lately; when I'd gone to see him yesterday and drop off Feka he looked like he was about to wither and die from tiredness. It almost made me sorry to leave Feka there, but I had to. Hopefully he'd recuperate himself and go back to his on-top-of-tasks attitude.

The couch seemed inviting at the time, but I forced myself to stay awake. In the early dawn (if there was one) I noticed things I didn't see when it was later on in the morning or late at night. A new display case, more like a small tank, was right next to the couch, where organisms that looked like jellyfish with turtle shells swam around. I would never want to swim with these—they had black, beady eyes and shark teeth that pulled into a sinister smile. How Szayel could make something like this was beyond me.

"I wonder if they are of any use in battle."

I nearly jumped out of my skin, my heart skipping a few beats. "Holy—don't do that. You did that last time, too."

Ulquiorra came into view, right behind the tank. "They seem capable of inflicting damage." He pointed a finger at one of the jellyfish's tentacles. Dozens of small spikes, reminding me of a rose's thorns, adorned them. Great.

"They can kill someone just by looking at them," I tried to look one of them in the eye but backed out before I could even begin. "I just hope these never get released."

"They would be useful if we set them up in the sands, if the battle took place here," he went on. We both remained silent, watching the creatures.

Suddenly, we both turned our heads toward the sound of a crash in the direction I'd last seen Szayel at. We unanimously headed toward the crash.

"Oh, my," Szayel chuckled, a hand covering his face.

"What's wrong?" I asked, coming closer; he was reluctant to remove his hand but I coaxed him into letting it go. "Oh."

"Here," Ulquiorra came out of nowhere with gauze and a small vial of rubbing alcohol. It was like he was an undercover doctor; his expression seemed concentrated on tending to Szayel's wound, a small gash going from his left cheek to the end of his eyebrow. Hissing from the sting at first, Szayel slowly got used to the pain and let Ulquiorra clean the wound. After some more cleaning, the wound started to close on its own.

"I thought that you traded your regeneration for power?" I asked, intrigued.

"Although I did, some trace of my regeneration still remains," Szayel explained; we followed him. "For an average arrancar, if they choose power, about a tenth of our regeneration abilities are left, the other ninths turned into offensive power."

"Where's the globe?" I asked once we made it back to where Ulquiorra and I were and he opened a garganta. Szayel worried me by blanking for a few moments before regaining his senses and searching for the globe, finding it on the ground next to the couch. Once I'd found Puerto Vallarta on the sphere, I repeated the same process as last week, touching the barrier between both atmospheres and seeing the darkness turn to a bright scene before my eyes.

"What is this place?" inquired Ulquiorra. He didn't look too happy about going to this place. Or anywhere, for that matter.

"You'll like it," I assured him even though I wasn't sure of it myself. I made haste going to get into my marioneta, the feeling of being tugged in not feeling so weird anymore. Our black and white clothing would have to change once we got there; although it wasn't incredibly hot at this time of year, darker colored clothes would most likely make us uncomfortable at some point. Ulquiorra was already in his when he arrived, so it saved us some of the trouble. "Ready to go?" I asked. He nodded and took the liberty of going through the garganta before I could. Looking at his figure disappear like that made a feeling of unease rise up in me, but I knew that he wasn't weak enough to fall victim to the garganta.

"Have fun," Szayel rubbed an eye, waving me off. He was really starting to worry me. However, I couldn't ponder over it forever and decided to give him a smile before going through the portal.

Warm yet refreshing air hit me the moment I went through. The sound of humans and our inventions around us brought a nostalgic feeling that I welcomed wholeheartedly. _Strange_, I thought, _I'm referring to humans as if I'm not one myself._

"Woman," Ulquiorra called my attention. His pale skin almost glowed in the sun; even with the changes in appearance of his marioneta, I still (mentally) saw the tear marks, serpent-like pupils and thick eyebrows.

"So, how's this place?" I asked him. He remained silent for a few seconds.

"I will inform you once I have seen what this place consists of."

It made me a bit glad to know he was at least trying to get used to this place. I took a look at what part of Puerto Vallarta we were currently in.

"If we go farther downhill we should get to a more populated area; these parts are more like where people live. Do you feel like having breakfast?" I started to walk down the path. With the ground sloping downwards a bit, it should have gotten us to an area near the beach and more of the shops. We could probably get something to eat and some lighter clothes. "Ulquiorra?"

"Woman, are you comfortable with my presence?" he didn't meet my eyes like he usually did.

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing," he dismissed the subject as abruptly as he'd started it up. "Let us find a restaurant to satisfy your hunger."

"You should eat something, too," I advised as we both walked down the sidewalk this time. "Even though you might not have needed food as a power source while you were an arrancar, you're in a marioneta right now. It's just a theory, but I'm guessing you need the energy that humans need, which means that you need to take in power the same way that we do, as well."

"Whatever deems fit."

He seemed awfully compliant today. "Are you okay?"

"Why would I not?"

"No reason…"

In about fifteen minutes we discovered that there were more businesses popping up here and there, signs that we were getting closer to our destination. Another ten minutes: we had reached the main string of buildings in the area. A few fast food restaurants were among the dozens of small shops selling anything from jewelry, clothing, and sweets.

"Here," I led him to a place I loved to eat at—before remembering the currency here. My stomach growled in protest but I had to do something first.

"What is it?" he asked, running a hand through his hair. The warm temperature was already getting to him…He caught me watching him while his hand was still halfway in his hair and I felt heat rise to my cheeks.

"I need to go get some money…," I murmured, then cleared my throat to speak louder. "You can go inside, say it's a table for two and I'll meet you in a bit."

He nodded; I wondered if he would be alright, then shook my head and looked for an ATM. Luckily there was one not too far that gave me more than enough _pesos_* for the whole day. One thing Aizen had done that I was actually okay with: getting a Chase card. Hurrying back, I saw Ulquiorra already seated at a table, his chin resting in the palm of his hand.

He hadn't changed much since that day. The only weird happening since then had been the night he'd stayed in my room to 'observe' me. On the other hand, I'd been trying to mask my feelings of disappointment the most I could—which was seen through by everyone _but_ him. Then that nightmare I'd had the night he stayed had scared the living shit out of me, just remembering the bits and pieces made my hands feel cold.

I didn't realize I was lost in thought until I snapped out of it. Ulquiorra was now staring back at me; blinking slowly, he took his hand out from under his chin and beckoned me over with his index finger. Another blush made its way to my face and I cursed under my breath before crossing the street to go inside the restaurant.

"Bienvenido, Señorita," a casually-dressed waiter greeted me at the entrance. "¿Alguien te están esperando?(Is someone waiting for you?)"

"Si," I answered curtly with a small smile, pointing in the direction Ulquiorra was. The waiter immediately knew what I was referring to and led me to the table Ulquiorra was at, pulling and pushing my chair in for me. Skimming through the menu's choices, I already knew what I would order. The food here wasn't really stuck to the Mexican cuisine, but they did have their special touches that made them unique.

"Do you know what you're having?" I asked Ulquiorra, my eyes peering over the menu to look at him. When he didn't answer and I asked him again, he finally looked up at me and shrugged.

"None of this interests me."

Sighing, I pointed to a few smaller platters that he'd probably be satisfied with. "I'm guessing you're not hungry?"

"I am."

Well, that was a first. It took me a few seconds to regain my senses before clearing my throat. "Um…you don't eat fruit?"

"Fruit?"

"Sweet, sour, juicy types of food. Have you ever tried them?"

"…I am not sure."

"¿Están listos para ordenar? (Are you ready to order?)" The waiter came by our table, dropping off two glasses of water and a set of silverware. I nodded and told him what I wanted, then asked Ulquiorra what he wanted one more time.

"Choose something for me, woman," he handed the menu to the waiter and looked at me expectantly. After a moment's hesitation I chose crepes for him with a glass of milk. _Oh well_, I thought. _If he doesn't like them I'll just take them with me. Hopefully I'll be able to heat them up._

The next fifteen minutes would've gone on in absolute silence if not for Ulquiorra. He actually started up a conversation with me. "How have you been?"

"Uh. I'm…fine," I answered with an incredulous tone of voice. "How about you?"

He didn't answer my question. "What are you planning to do today?"

"There's a few places I want to visit. I think you'll like most of them. We're going to have to get a change of clothing first, though."

"A change of clothing?" he asked before taking a sip of water. Even the way he drank water was somewhat sophisticated and mature. "Alexia."

"Ah," I snapped out of my thoughts. "Wearing darker clothes in warm places, especially with the sun out—" I pointed to the cloudless blue sky, "—it'll make you feel even warmer. If we wear lighter clothes then the sun's heat won't wear us down so much."

"I see," he replied.

We watched the people passing by; women, men, children and some stray animals wandered the oceanside. At some point a string of trailers passed through, an announcer's voice proudly boasting their circus's features and then their performance times. At the same time, the waiter came with our drinks and plates. It could've been somewhat of a dinner/breakfast and show.

"¡Disfruten!" the waiter left with a small nod.

"What is this?" Ulquiorra eyed the circus suspiciously, as if they were going to let the tigers loose or something.

"A circus," I answered bluntly, all of my attention on the scrumptious-looking (and tasting) food. Waffles were probably my favorite breakfast food; these were thick yet airy, had unsweetened whipped cream, chocolate syrup and powdered sugar on top. On the side was a scrambled egg and three strips of bacon, and another side had mixed fruits. My mouth watered.

On the other hand, Ulquiorra had two crepes, one with banana on the inside and the other with strawberries. A small amount of powdered sugar was sprinkled over them and a small syrup dispenser to the side. Small slices of strawberry and banana littered the edges of the plate.

Ulquiorra didn't even glance at his food.

I started to eat, savoring the heavenly taste. I didn't know much about cooking; I'd probably never be able to make something as good as this unless I was a natural. Taking a sip of my chocolate milkshake, I contemplated on how to get Ulquiorra's attention. For some reason the circus intrigued him more than normal.

I cleaned my hands and then tapped Ulquiorra's, which was resting on the table inches away from his plate. He blinked a few times before realizing what was going on and inspecting his plate.

"Looks good, huh?" I smiled.

"…We shall see," he answered, cutting a piece of the crepe and bringing it up to his lips. "It would be convenient for you not to watch me."

"S-sorry," I chuckled and resumed the task of eating my meal, still looking out of the corner of my eye at him to see his reaction.

Finally. His mouth closed around the fork and he chewed thoroughly.

"So, how is it?"

He didn't answer, but continued to eat instead. _Well, there's my answer_. Reaching over, I cut a piece myself and savored the citrusy taste of the strawberry and mildly sweet flavor of the banana mixed with the pancake.

"Woah, I might like these crepes even more than my waffles," I laughed.

"What you have just done…," he started, his facial expression a bit thoughtful.

"What about it?" I said before drinking some more of my milkshake.

"An indirect kiss?"

I nearly choked. "A-a what? Why would y-you even…?"

"It was in a novel," he explained casually while cutting another piece. "A woman became flustered because she ate food that which the man she admires had also eaten from directly. She theorized that it was a kiss, not literally but somewhat related to one."

"That much I understand," I mumbled. We ate in silence the rest of the time, watching as the last of the circus's trailers passed and the street was once again occupied by cars. Although, somewhere in the back of my head, I knew the waffle and everything in general tasted delicious, I could no longer concentrate on the taste now that Ulquiorra had said that.

"Have you finished yet?" he asked as he ate the last of his meal.

"Almost," I murmured. All I had left was the egg.

After we paid for our meal and took our leave, I set off in search of a clothing store with plain white shirts; I was pretty sure that Ulquiorra wasn't going to wear a shirt with patterns on it to save his life. Luckily there was one only a few minutes away that also sold other things he could wear. That being said, I got him to put on lighter denim pants along with the white button up shirt he had decided to get. I got myself a short-sleeved white shirt that was frilled at the lower neckline and tighter at the bottom. With that, I purchased a long, lavender skirt with green grapevines coming up from the black-trimmed bottom. Walking some more after we'd finished, I saw something new that had been added: small lockers by the pebbled stairs leading down to the beach area. I decided to rent one, the price lower than I was expecting.

"We'll put our stuff here," I pointed Ulquiorra to the locker as the woman who had rented it to me gave me a lock and key for it. "We should change into our new clothes already…"

I gathered up my clothes and handed him his, then chose a locker and put the lock on it. _Number 46_, I thought, _pretty easy to remember._

After directing Ulquiorra to the mens' changing room a few yards away, I hastily went to mine and changed in less than five minutes. We were already taking up too much time; the digital clock in the room read 12:14. Upon leaving the room in my new outfit, I was immediately greeted by Ulquiorra, who was leaning on the wall next to the door.

"Where are we going?" asked Ulquiorra, his hands in the pockets of his jeans.

"Those mountains look interesting to you?" I responded, pointing to the fertile summit. He stared at them before hesitantly nodding. "There are busses that give a tour of the whole place, I was thinking we could go on one of them."

Nodding in agreement, we asked residents of the bus's tour stops and took a taxi to one of them once we knew its location. The man in the taxi made conversation with me and attempted to get Ulquiorra involved, but failed to do so.

We had to wait a while before the bus got here. This time, we remained silent, surveying the scene around us. It wasn't as populated as the area we were just in, but there were still people outside. A group of small children played soccer outside with their parents. _What's today? A Tuesday? Most students won't be out of school until two hours later._

Suddenly, the soccer ball came rolling towards Ulquiorra and I. Smiling, I kicked it back. The feeling hurt a little because I was wearing sandals now instead of gym shoes or converse, which would've lessened the pain of kicking the ball.

"What are they doing?" Ulquiorra asked.

"It's called soccer, or 'fútbol' in Spanish. You have a soccer ball, you kick it and try to get it into the goals." I pointed to the two makeshift goals on either side of the street; one of the children kicked it in the net to make a goal. The other kids cheered and continued to play. At the same time the bus arrived and we boarded it. The person at the front of the bus spoke in both English and Spanish.

"Welcome to Puerto Vallarta's exclusive tour bus," the woman greeted both of us with a handshake, which I accepted. Ulquiorra, however, left her hanging—didn't even look at her, either.

"You should've shaken her hand," I whispered to him after we were seated. We were the second to last row, on the left. I'd let Ulquiorra sit by the window while I sat at the edge, which was a rare occurrence.

"Why?" he answered.

"She was being polite. Leaving her like that was rude."

"I did not see the purpose of taking the hand of a person I had no desire to know better."

"That isn't the—"

The bus started off again and the woman at the front began to talk, bringing our conversation to an end. Sighing, I distracted myself by looking out the window. I had to lean forward in order to see because of my seating.

Ulquiorra looked out the window, but he seemed to be doing it out of habit and not because he was interested. We crossed a river and started on a road up the mountains; we'd occasionally see a cross or a few candles on the side of the street. Some had pictures of children, women or men. I could only imagine…

"Why are those there?" Ulquiorra asked.

"Unfortunately, people have died here. Whether they fell down the mountain, were hit by a car or even murdered, humans usually put some sort of marker to remember them. That's why we have cemeteries; they have a grave for your relative or friend who passed away and you can visit them, bring them flowers or other things like that."

"It seems foolish," he replied. "If they have died, then they are dead. There is no point to giving them a grave and giving them things as if they are still alive."

"Whether they're dead or not, people feel an attachment to the person and want to remember them. There's no harm in that," I defended.

"Is there someone dead whom you are attached to?"

His gaze was put on me in the same moment I turned mine away from the window.

"Well…I…"

"Yes?"

"It was a friend," I murmured, fiddling with my hair. "She felt trapped by her lifestyle and…a few other things happened, so she decided to take away her own life."

"Suicide?"

I nodded.

"How inconsiderate."

Shocked for a moment, my eyes flitted up to meet his. He almost looked annoyed. "W-what do you mean?"

"By taking away her life, those around her were hurt. If she had thought of the consequences then she would not have killed herself, but when the moment came she only thought of herself and her priorities. That in itself is vain."

"You don't know what her life was like, though," I tried to defend her. "Her parents held so many expectations for her that she didn't like, she was expected to maintain an image for the sake of her family, and her sexuality was highly disliked by her family."

"Alexia," Ulquiorra started, a firm tone of voice that somehow also sounded soft. "Do you truly think that her killing herself was the inevitable event that would come out of all this? She had choices but decided to do the worst."

Sighing softly, I closed my eyes. His words made so much sense that I almost believed him—almost. I knew that Audria hadn't done something like that in order to hurt the people around her, right? I'd seen her die right before my eyes, seen what she was experiencing. She wouldn't go through that in order to hurt others…right?

Continuing to look out the window, the woman at the front of the bus said something that I couldn't quite catch. Something about a bumpy _toad_…?

The bus suddenly hit a different path and it made almost everyone jump. Unfortunately, I hadn't put on my seat belt, resulting in me losing my balance and almost falling to the floor. It would've been humiliating, but what had actually happened made me even more embarrassed. Ulquiorra's face held surprise for a few seconds as I crashed into his side, clutching his shirt so I wouldn't fall. Two of the buttons at the top became undone, revealing some of his flawless chest. I felt myself blush up to my ears, certain that a few people had seen what I'd done.

He took my wrist that was clutching his shirt and gently retreated it. He had a concerned look on his face—or that just could've been my imagination. "Are you alright?"

Nodding hastily, I went back to sitting in the right position and averted my gaze from his, putting on my seat belt so it wouldn't happen again. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see two teenage guys snickering; refusing to be humiliated, I set my shoulders back and lifted my head a little higher, taking a deep breath to compose myself. The bus was now back in a more populated area not far from El Malecón, most of the main attractions of Puerto Vallarta were. Ulquiorra seemed to forget the event altogether, his arms casually on the armrest as he examined the environment. Looking out the window, I could see the blue waters of the Pacific ocean not too far away.

"Have a good day!" the woman dismissed us. This time, Ulquiorra reluctantly took her hand and she shook it. _Well, it's better than ignoring her_, I thought on my way down the stairs.

"Where?" Ulquiorra asked absentmindedly, taking out his phone.

I decided to test him. Pointing nowhere I said, "There." He looked up for a split second before going back down to the screen. Sighing, I took the phone out of his hands and he looked up with an almost accusing glare. "Geez, you're like a teenager. It's not like I'm going to read what's on it."

"Then return it to me."

"Try to pay more attention," I continued. "How do you know I wasn't telling you to get away from me?"

He inspected me. "Considering the circumstances, there is not much chance that you would say something such as that." I fought the urge to blush. "I am correct."

"A-alright then, where did I say we were going?" He didn't answer. "See? Pay attention."

I saw a rack of bikes and felt the urge to go and get one, but I knew that Ulquiorra probably didn't know how to ride one. Also…I wasn't keen on the idea of him standing on the pegs on the back of one while I pedaled on. I didn't have the strength for that—not to mention that the image of doing that made me laugh. He wouldn't agree to something like that.

Without my knowing, Ulquiorra had gone ahead of me. Turning his torso, he looked over his shoulder at me. It was a perfect pose for him. "Woman."

"Right," I mumbled, my flip-flops making a smacking sound as I ran up to him. A nice, fresh breeze kicked in and I felt temporarily refreshed from the warmer air. "Do you mind just walking by the oceanside?"

"No."

"There's nothing wrong with the beach."

"There are plenty of them around the world. You may visit one next time." I sighed, giving up.

The beaches downtown weren't that crowded; in fact, you could say they were sparse (not including the sculptors molding the sand into incredible figures). The sound of waves lapping onto the rocks and sand calmed me. Of course, there was sound coming from the diners by the ocean (which would become clubs with flashing lights and booming music later on), but they were canceled out by the waves. Looking over at Ulquiorra, I saw the breeze moving his hair in a movie-scene way. _Now, if only he felt something for me_…I immediately cleared my head of that thought.

"What are you pondering about?" he asked without looking my way.

"Life…," I summed it all up.

"What exactly?"

Sighing, I mentally gathered all my thoughts and said them in no particular order. "How sometimes you can't have the things you want, how easy it is to make illusions for yourself, how things can change for the better or worse, cause and effect, reactions—it could go on forever."

"It seems you are having negative notions despite being in a place you claimed to love."

"I do love this place, but sometimes life doesn't let you have too much fun."

"What will make you satisfied?"

I scoffed. "None of the things, if I even got the courage to ask you, are things you'd want to do."

"Because of your not informing me of your day of birth, I could not take earlier actions in order to make that day satisfactory. I only want to repay your…kindness."

"I don't recall anything I've been doing these past two weeks as kind."

"I meant the time which I was disabled."

"Ah." Now I felt a bit bad. For once, and probably the only time, he truly wanted to repay something because of a favor done to him. "What happened the other times that you transformed? Did Szayel take care of you?"

"Yes," he watched the sun in the horizon, starting its descent so the moon could take its place. I couldn't wait until it was nighttime. I suddenly got an idea that brought a smile to my face. "What is it, woman?"

"You know how you said that you wanted to repay me?"

"What of it?"

"Let's go down there," I pointed to the beach. He seemed reluctant about it at first. "The water's so warm during the afternoon and the sand feels soft, it's a nice feeling." After a moment of thought, my hand found his and I squeezed it. "Only for a few minutes."

My heartbeat reverberated in my ears. "Fine."

We went down the stairs; almost no one was there now that it was later in the evening. The waves were calm, as if it was a lake instead of the largest ocean in the world. I took off my sandals at the end of the stairs and convinced Ulquiorra to do so, as well. His toenails weren't painted, to my relief. It would've been a farther fetched issue if they were black as well. We slowly waded in inch by inch, getting a bit closer to the water every second.

I smiled once my feet made contact with the lukewarm salt water, swirling around our feet as the waves went around us. Ulquiorra seemed at peace, from what I could see. "How do you like it?" I whispered, closing my eyes and embracing the feeling of the waves, the breeze and his hand in mine._ If only I was asking myself this question_, I thought to myself. _I'd say it was the happiest moment of my life so far._

"It is warm," he commented, gazing into my eyes. _Wouldn't this be the part where he kisses me?_ "Is there something on my mouth?"

"N-no," I replied hastily. "Just thinking. Again."

"Negatively?"

_Not at all._ "Uh, not really."

"If there is something which would make you more content with what you have at the moment, do not hesitate to ask."

Nodding, I continued to wade in. At this point the water reached the back of my knees, soaking some of my skirt with it. Ulquiorra was just behind me. Another idea came to me, but I wasn't sure I wanted to do this one. He seemed to sense that I was building up an idea and asked me again if there was something I wanted.

"Um…you don't have to if you don't want to," I have a small warning.

"That depends on what it is."

I waded back a bit, my arms around my waist. "Grab my hands." Once he'd done that, I leaned back against him and wrapped his arms around my waist. Taking a deep breath, I nearly lulled myself to sleep in his embrace.

"Woman?" he murmured, his voice next to my ear.

"Yeah?"

"Why are you doing this?"

The question caught me a bit off guard. "Uh…well…"

"Because of your claimed 'love'?"

The way he said that made me a bit angry. Before I could watch what I was saying I said, "It's not a claim if you know it's true."

He was unfazed. "All of your actions have lead to this. Let me ask you once more: why are you doing this?"

"It doesn't really matter to you, though," I remarked. _But if it does to me…_ "Let's just say that I figured out a way for both of us to be okay."

"I am curious," he started. "This restrained form permits me to act with a bit more emotion. I would like to act as such with your help. Will you teach me?"

"Teach you what, exactly?" I asked, my voice almost a whisper.

"Teach me how to show my emotions. If you feel compelled to do so…teach me how love comes about."

It could have been my mind playing tricks on me, but I felt his grip on my waist tighten.

At the same time, I felt both happiness and a tinge of sadness. If I taught him, I'd pretty much be able to express myself more freely around him. There was also the chance that…_No_, I scoffed. _That wouldn't happen._ That was the sad thing about it; if I ended up doing those kinds of things, I would hurt myself because in my head I'd know that what would happen would never be his true feelings.

"…"

_He's waiting._

Closing my eyes and leaning into his form, I murmured, "I'll be glad to."

I wished that twist in my stomach would go away.

We spent some time just standing there the tide eventually getting stronger. Once the waves grew restless, I decided to leave. Ulquiorra and I both had plenty of sand on our feet; they had added a station to clean off your feet, fortunately. I hadn't realized how long we'd stayed there—the sun had pretty much set, a dim line of light on the horizon of where it was. Looking up, a few stars were already in the sky.

"Let us go," Ulquiorra unexpectedly pushed me forward and I involuntary glared at him. Then froze. Was that a smile?

It disappeared as soon as I noticed—or maybe it wasn't there to being with.

We walked down the path of the oceanside, looking at the statues made; a boy on a seahorse, an angel playing a trumpet and others were among them. We soon came to Los Arcos: a row of arches that also served as an amphitheater, which was happening right now.

A group of folkloric dancers were doing one of their dances; their pastel-colored dresses, studded suits and sombreros calling attention from every direction. A mariachi played proudly in the background. I paid special attention to those playing the violin, with their perfect posture and confidence.

A woman next to me turned and, in Spanish, randomly started talking to me about how this group originated from here and now traveled all over the world, performing songs and earning a great reputation. Once in a while they came back to their hometown and gave a free performance outside, always at the Los Arcos. I also talked with her and saw that she was an easily likable person. After we decided to stop talking and resume watching, Ulquiorra turned to me.

"Why did you learn to speak Spanish?" he asked me. I thought about his question for a few moments before answering.

"Well, there were two main reasons why I did," I started, "the first being that my aunt liked going to Mexico once in a while and I would catch their language little by little—one time my parents had a business trip they went on and they decided to take me with them. I'd be lying if I didn't like the language."

"And the second reason?"

My face reddened. "Uh…well, that's because…" He stared at me intently and I only became more embarrassed.. "D-don't look at me like that."

"This is how I always look at you, woman."

"Well, turn around or something!" I said nervously. Averting my gaze from his, I gulped before answering. "I thought it sounded…"

"…"

"Sexy."

"…I…see…"

"I knew I shouldn't have told you!" I exclaimed, this time turning away from him completely and crossing my arms. He probably knew from my behavior that my face was red. We watched the rest of the performance in silence, not noticing how distinct the sky had turned. We left an hour or so after I insisted that we see the statues on the oceanfront. He seemed bored by it all.

"Are you ready to leave, woman?" he asked, already opening a garganta in a deserted alleyway.

"Not like I have a choice," I yawned.

Greeted by the white everything of Las Noches, it was almost like a piece of my soul remained in the World of the Living. Ulquiorra and I walked in silence.

"Woman, why do humans create so many inventions?" he asked.

"Well, for one, it makes our lives easier—at least, most of the things we make do that. And second, we can't just sit around waiting for us to die; so, we made all kinds of things in order to distract us from the fact that we'd die one day. I know I wouldn't be able to handle not doing anything at all my entire life, just waiting for the moment I pass away," I explained.

"It is a waste," he remarked.

"Why do you think that?"

"Why would a human create so many things when they know that they cannot escape death? It is as if they are trying to defy the laws of aging by distracting themselves."

"That's what I just said," I facepalmed. He was starting to sound a little like Barragan.

"It is pure stupidity."

"Ulquiorra, you do realize that—"

"Why do humans not embrace the fact that they will die? What kind of race would do something so disgraceful as make themselves look like fools?"

"You haven't thought of how you were…," I left the rest for him to figure out.

"Tell me, how do humans spend their lives?" he stared into my eyes as if I would tell him some big secret. "What do they do for their whole lives, if not waiting for death?"

"They have _fun_, Ulquiorra," I replied firmly. "Like what we were doing today."

"How foolish to do such a thing."

"Like I said, we're not going to sit around and wait to either die or be killed. And anyways—"

"Your logic is flawed," he stated. At this point I was a little irked at him. It seemed like he still hadn't figured it out.

"It's not flawed at all."

"How is it not corrupted?"

"You're acting like it's a bad thing to invent all those things. I mean, some of them are bad but, comparing them to the good, they're outweighed. I don't get why you're so bothered."

"Your humanness blinds you." Oh my god. "If you saw from a perspective of a hollow, you would see how none of your inventions are worth anything. Your species is—"

"Okay, Ulquiorra," I interrupted him angrily. "So they're worthless, so I'm blinded, so what? And I hate it when you refer to humans as 'that species'. Has it ever occurred to you that you had to have been a human that died in order to become a hollow? So, how do you feel about it now?"

His eyes narrowed a fraction of an inch, making me take a step back. To my dismay, my anger was immediately replaced by worry. _Did I stir up his emotions…?_ It was too late to take back what I'd said.

"It is not your place to tell me what your species is like. Always abandoning others. You do not know that you will always end up alone, regardless of your 'love'. Even if it eventually binds you, you will immediately be forgotten after you have died."

"You're so wrong," I hissed. "You don't know because you've never tried."

"…"

The look he gave me was unfathomable, a jumble of thoughts compressed together. Was he angry? Sad? Calm? It could've been my imagination, as well.

"Sleep, woman," he said coldly, turning his back on me. My hands fisted at my sides and I tried not to yell back at him. And he apparently wanted me to teach him how to have emotion? How was I supposed to do that when he had this kind of view on humans? I angrily swung the door to my room open and slammed it behind me, anxious to sleep.

Showering took less than ten minutes, a new record for me. I didn't bother to change out of my clothes and harshly brushed my teeth in haste. The music box that I usually wound up so it could lull me to sleep sat neglected on my dresser. I practically leapt into my bed, glad that the day was over with. I'd never gotten to do half of the things on my agenda, most of the time I was distracted and to end the day I had an argument with Ulquiorra.

Never had I wanted so badly to get away from it all.

Alexia: So, here are the results:

**Las Noches Host Club**

**Coyote Stark- The strong and silent one**

**Ulquiorra Schiffer- The cool one**

**Grimmjow Jeagerjaques- The king**

**Unbr0ken and Kouki- The Brotherly Loved **

**Luppi Antenor- Lolita boy**

Stark: So…

Grimmjow: -_- If you were gonna put paper headbands around our heads with labels of our type, couldn't you have at least made a crown for me?

Unbr0ken: :D Yay, Kouki and I have the same type of headband!

Kouki: T_T That's because we're the same type of host, Jay.

Luppi: I got the role I wanted :3 Does this mean I get to—

Everyone: T_T No.

Luppi: ;-; But…

Stark: Silent, huh?

Alexia: Yeah, why?

Stark: (Already taking a nap)

Ulquiorra: Calm?

Me: ^_^ What better personality?

Alexia: And we have our first customer! (Pushes me, almost making me crash into Ulquiorra)

Me: O/_/O

Kouki: Ouch.

Alexia: What?

Kouki: I think I have a cut. Fuck, it stings…

Unbr0ken: ~gets first aid kit in 0.5 seconds~ where is it!?

Everyone except Alexia: -.-'

Alexia: So, welcome to the Las Noches Host Club!

Grimmjow: I'm the king!

Luppi: :3

Stark: Zzz…

Ulquiorra: T_T

Unbr0ken: (Tending to Kouki's wound) Don't worry, I'll make sure nothing can ever hurt you again T-T

Kouki: Am I the only normal one here?

Me: Well, this isn't going to end well T_T

Unbr0ken and Kouki: Ooh! Can we sing Super Bass now!?

Alexia: Go ahead -_-

(Unbr0ken and Kouki have a Nicki Minaj marathon)

Me: Well, it's been a while since I asked you guys but, can you review, please? Recently I haven't gotten any feedback and I was wondering if I'd done something wrong or lost some of my touch. (Shrugs) Just a few simple words are enough ^_^ See you next week, hopefully.

_Pesos: Mexican currency_

Song of the week: Tighten Up by The Black Keys


	25. Again and Again

Ulquiorra: …

Grimmjow: What's with you? And what're you holding behind your back?

Ulquiorra: …I believe it was a custom in the World of the Living.

Me: Show me! Who are you giving it to?

Ulquiorra: (Averts eyes) Alexia.

Grimmjow: Well isn't that just cute ~smirks~

Unbr0ken: (Creeps up behind Ulquiorra and then freezes) O_O

Me: What?

Unbr0ken: What the hell is that!? (Hides behind me)

Grimmjow: Let me see! (Looks behind Ulquiorra) O.O What. The fuck.

Me: So…(looks at item behind Ulquiorra's back, unfazed) Where exactly did you get this from?

Ulquiorra: There was a strange shop in Mexico…

Unbr0ken: It just had to be Mexico…

Me: (Glares)

Alexia: Hi ^_^

Everyone: O.O

Me: (Whispers) Don't do it!

Ulquiorra: I bought something for you…

Unbr0ken: (Trying not to laugh)

Alexia: :D Really!?

Ulquiorra: Yes… (Hands her the item)

Grimmjow: (Facepalm)

Alexia: (Hugs item) Thank you!

Ulquiorra: You're welcome…

Alexia: (Actually takes a good look at the stuffed teddy bear with a serial killer's smile and eyes) O_O

Me: Uh…

Ulquiorra: Happy Valen—

Alexia: (Shrieks, throwing the teddy bear across the room and running away, slamming the door behind her)

Everyone except Unbr0ken: -_-

Unbr0ken: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

**SEPTEMBER TWENTIETH**

**_ The floor around me was wet with rain from humans' shoes. My back was against the gray wall of the hospital, the small rectangular window my only view to the rest of the darkened sky. A flash of lightning brightened my face, revealing an insipid face that was tired of the world. A chain from my chest led to the hospital room I would've been in if not for her. My hands clenched in momentary anger I knew would not last._**

**_ Her._**

**_ She had said that she would visit, but where was she?_**

**_ This hospital could have been a prison for all it was worth—rarely any patients left their rooms and there was a shortage of staff. Once every few hours, an elderly woman would walk down the hall, asking if the patients were alright. I could see her how; she was frightened to no end by the intense rain, thunder and lightning, hastily making her way to each room. Every passing second she came closer to me, the concerned and petrified expression on her face becoming clearer to me. Finally, she reached my former room and knocked before masking her face with a false smile, saying the usual. After the man answered, she nodded and gently closed the door._**

**_ Her eyes flickered over to me and I froze, locking eyes with her. It had been so long since someone could see me. Last time, it had been a small girl no older than ten. Of course, with her age, no one believed her when she told them of her discovery. Even less since she'd had a type of disorder which there had not been a cure; she had multiple personalities and seemed to transform into a different person abruptly. A year ago, she'd fallen from a window and died._**

**_ The woman narrowed her eyes and I knew she'd seen me. Her hand reached out and I flinched, knowing I would be put outside to endure the rainy atmosphere. I hated rain; it wasn't a fear but a blinding hate to see the droplets of water falling down from the sky._**

**_ I awaited her words, telling me to get out before she called someone over, but it never happened. Instead, her hand went through my non-substantial chest and picked up something from the ground, then went on her way._**

**_ I should have known better._**

**_ A stinging sensation arose in my eyes and I screwed them shut, also covering my face in my hands. How much longer would I have to go through this pain of not existing to almost no one but the few chosen? A tear went down my face and more followed thereafter, making the same path. I could feel the chain on my chest deteriorating a bit more. I did not know what would happen after the chain fully eroded; all I knew was that I would not be able to stand the agony it brought with it._**

**_ I realized the chain was no longer attached to the room._**

**_ The sound of rain was the only tone I would hear for the next few hours. I forced myself onto my feet and walked the halls of the hospital, down the stairs and willed myself to go through the entrance. Looking up, none of the raindrops ever touched me, only went through my form; it wasn't fair. Nothing ever acknowledged my existence unless I was the one to interfere with it._**

**_ She should have visited me today. I walked to her home, but stopped on the way there. Underneath a lamp post, I saw her. Glossy hair tucked into a red bonnet, pure black umbrella shielding her from the droplets of water, and the white cloak I'd given her around her shoulders, she was smiling and content; as if the one she loved had never died._**

**_ That was most likely because another man was holding her by the waist as they walked own the sidewalk. A shot of envy and anger made me quicken my pace, heading towards her. Once I was in range I took the man's arm and flung it off of her waist. His eyes widened impressively and he looked behind him, of course not able to see my form._**

**_ "What happened?" she asked, her voice sweet. Sweeter than how she would talk to me._**

**_ "I swear I felt someone touch my back…," he said, then chuckled._**

**_ "Silly, ghosts don't exist. Even if they did, I'm pretty sure they'd stay away from you."_**

**_ "Oh, and why is that?" he again slid his arm and grabbed her waist, further fueling my anger. An odd tingling sensation started in the tips of my fingers._**

**_ "Because my savior cannot be bested by some minuscule ghost."_**

**_ Her lips brushed over his._**

**_ My breaths became uneven and my hands clenched, for the tingling in my hands had gotten stronger with her actions. They began to walk down the road, coming to a more secluded place with wildlife. The land went uphill. I knew that at the top would be a cliff, where she and I had first met. My feet moved before my mind could register what was happening._**

**_ They were already at the top of the hill, holding each other's hands and gazing into their eyes. It made me sick to see them like that. _Will she abandon him like she did me? Why would she do such a thing in the first place? She is the one who cares for me and _was_ the only person I truly cared for, but this changes everything._ She headed to the edge of the cliff, looking down at the ground about twenty feet below her._**

**_ I followed._**

**_ She was no less than a foot away from me now, her rust-colored hair waving through my face. The rain had long ended, to my surprise. Her body turned slowly and faced me, but her eyes were looking in the distance, at the other man whom she now cared for. _She most likely knew him at the same she knew me_; that thought drove me over the edge. I'd looked after her with such care and this was how she had repaid me._**

**_ 'I'll visit you whenever I can!'_**

**What a lie.**

**_ My hands reached out to her and I willed them to become momentarily substantial, my force making her stumble. A look of surprise quickly turned to horror as she realized what was happening. With a piercing scream, she fell to the ground below._**

**_ I stood there, barely acknowledging what I'd done. My hands. I looked down at my hands. _I did this_. My whole body spun around to look at the other man, who was already running from the scene._**

**_ I felt fear and confusion, pain and anger. The emotions came at me in a giant wave. _You did this. You pushed her._ Forcing myself to walk to the edge of a cliff, I saw her limp, lifeless form on the ground, a pool of blood around her head. The chain on my chest once again started to deteriorate._**

**You killed her.**

It took some effort to open my eyes; I was greeted by the white ceiling of my room._ A dream?_ It had to have been, but I was certain that that had actually happened before. _Impossible_, I told myself. _A hollow is not capable of remembering their past. It was a strange visualization._

I willed myself out of bed, my mind (and left eye) still conjuring images of my thoughts while I had been sleeping. A small platter of insipid food sat on my counter, waiting to be consumed. Sighing, I ate all the contents and dressed up, separating from my marioneta in the process. When Alexia and I had had a discussion, it seemed as if both of were mentally and physically tired. My mind was occupied on my slumber's visions as I felt my room with no destination in mind.

Once again, I felt as if those events had actually happened. I did not know about my time before I became a hollow; therefore, I had no evidence to know if they were remnants of my past or simply my mind's tricks.

** 'You're so confused, it's quite entertaining.'**

_Do you know whether those visions were true or not?_

** 'I'm not telling you,'** his chuckle sent a feeling of repulsion through me. **'It's much more fun when you're left in the dark.'**

If anyone would know of my past, it would most probably be Lord Aizen. I would not permit myself to show weakness to him, though. My trivial matters were not to interfere with him.

My left eye would not stop flashing the images of my dream before me, offering a partial view of my environment. My feet took me to the roof of Las Noches, where the crescent moon shone.

Was that woman someone important in my life as a human? Was she the cause of my death or just a normal human that had been there at the wrong time? This vision had reminded me of Alexia's side of our argument a few days ago. I hadn't admitted it, but she was correct, in a sense; and in another sense, so was I. Anyone to have heard our discussion would have agreed.

'_With a piercing scream, she fell to the ground below.'_

I closed my eyes, trying to force the images out but unsuccessful. Her face was not fully visible to me, the same going for the man with her. If it was a memory, I would have most likely been able to see their faces.

"I was human…," I murmured. The fact had gone unnoticed by me for all these years. I was a human that had to have died in order to become a hollow. Sighing, I treaded a hand through my hair and pondered for a while longer about all the things that occurred in these past few days. While in the World of the Living, I'd been driven to the edge by my questions on humans and their customs and asked Alexia for help. She'd been a bit hesitant at first but eventually complied. What I hadn't expected were some of her actions that day. Usually her actions were quite predictable; now they all separated and scattered, appearing at strange times.

I felt the roof in search of Szayelapporo. _Perhaps he has a device of some sort to extract the images from my eye_, I thought. With one scene in one eye and a different one in the other, I did not feel completely in the setting of Hueco Mundo nor the setting in my dreams.

"Szayelapporo," I said in monotone as soon as I gained entrance into his lab. He looked physically and mentally tired, his shoulders slumped forwards and his head resting on his hand. "Why do you seem so spent?"

"My work seems to be getting the better of me," he grumbled with a dry laugh. "I'm close to figuring things out, but I can't seem to find the small details of the things that make it what it is."

"…"

"You have no idea what I'm saying, do you?"

"Not in the least." I sat on the couch. "May you spare a moment?"

"Always," he yawned loudly and rubbed his eyes, then shook himself and advised me that he would be back.

The images were getting sharper. Instead of an occasional flash, they stayed for a few seconds and then faded. _Sooner or later_, I predicted, _they'll stay permanently_. This had never happened before; if it kept up, it would get in the way of Lord Aizen's plans.

**'Maybe with you half-blind it'll be easier for me to control you,'** I could hear his mocking tone of voice and did not let it get the better of me. **'This is a rather fun and interesting game.'**

_A game?_

** 'When I get to see you so confused and angered like this, I see that I'm a step closer to getting under your skin. Ah, wait, I already am.'**

_ I am not angered, and I am not so confused as to let you take control._

** 'We'll see about that.'**

Szayelapporo appeared, a glass of water in hand. I asked him his purpose for bringing me a drink and he shrugged. With him in closer range, I could see darkness around his eyes. Whatever his experiments were this time, they were physically draining him.

"So…," he yawned again, "what's the problem?"

"I have been seeing strange images appearing in my eye," I did not give away too much information, but I already knew what his next question would be.

"What kind of images?"

"…," I contemplated whether or not to tell him. He was one to keep his word, that much I knew. The very first time I'd lost control, he had somehow kept it secret for the whole time I'd been ill after. The second time was when Lord Aizen had been informed, by a lower arrancar that had seen me while in my ill state. My tasks had decreased since then, something I knew meant weakness. The fact I could not serve him fully made me feel useless. I finally answered Szayelapporo. "A vision came to me as I slept. Since I woke up, they have been flashing through my left eye and have now become persistent."

He tilted his head and got up, getting a clipboard and bringing up a hologram of…me. Looking through a few sets of data, he skimmed through the information. And then turned to me. "This hasn't happened before…," he confirmed and then proceeded to get closer to me, inspecting my eyes. The small distance between us was a bit uncomfortable as he lifted an eyelid, ordering me to move my eye in a circular motion so he could see more of it.

"Would it not be easier for me to remove my eye?" I asked. He shook his head.

"If your eye is flashing these images while it's still in your eye socket, it should stay there in case something happens in the process. Now, do the same with the other eye, please."

He flipped a strand of hair out of his eyes and readjusted his glasses made of hollow bone after he finished examining me. "You don't have an explanation for this," I answered my own question after analyzing his expression.

He chuckled softly. "I'm afraid not. These past few days have been nothing but experiments and theories, tests and inferences; all circling around a central idea."

I did not have a reason to care, but I asked nonetheless, "What idea would that be?"

His eyes showed conflict for a few moments before remembering that I was watching for his answer. Clearing his throat, he did not meet my eyes as he replied. "I was instructed to keep the information classified."

I did not find the idea of prodding him for answers worth my time and took my leave; he also seemed akin to my intentions, wanting me out of his lab. Although the matter was vaguely interesting (not to mention that I wasn't one to like being left in the dark), there were more _visual_ matters at hand.

On my way to my quarters I tried different methods to forcing the images out of eyes and mind. I sent spiritual pressure to my eye in hopes of taking the visions away in exchange for a small amount of pain. That only made the monocular vision more prominent. Now they stayed for almost ten to fifteen seconds before flashing away. It was a struggle to walk in the right manner with half of my eyesight being cut off abruptly every thirty seconds or so.

"Somebody looks like they've been having too much fun," a feminine voice said. I turned to face Luppi Antenor, the new sixth espada. I held no respect for Jeagerjaques—not how I had before—but I also found it strange that someone such as Luppi would take his place. They seemed to be on different levels; of course, with the upgraded power granted by the switching of ranks, it would give Luppi more strength and deplete Grimmjow of his, making their differences reversed.

"_Sexta_," I said. The word that I would use to refer to other sixth sounded and felt foreign when being directed towards another being.

"You okay?" he smiled, winking and putting a hand on his hip. "You were walking all crooked, I almost thought that you'd decided to get a drink without me…"

"There is no reason to indulge in alcoholic beverages. They do not benefit in any way or form." I started to walk away from him but he persistently followed. I supposed the sixth and him had one thing in common: an insistence on shadowing me at times when I was to be alone.

"Aw, come on," he made a face at me. "Don't tell me you've never actually drank before?"

"…"

"Woah, somebody hasn't lived a life," he snickered.

"We are dead."

"You know what I mean," he waved his sleeved arms in an annoyed manner. Suddenly, a glint came onto his eyes. "Hey, why don't we have a drink right now?"

I glared at him. "Who do you take me for?"

"A sad, sad man."

I gave a small sigh and picked up my pace. "I have no time to waste on trash like you." The images were starting up again.

"I mean, come on," he pleaded. "The bar's right here."

I blinked a few times after the visions faded and looked in the direction he was pointing. I'd almost forgot about this section of Las Noches; with my recent visits to the World of the Living, I could relate to the atmosphere here. The absence of people was an immense difference, but I could imagine a family at the small shop on the left and a crowd of children at the toy store. Why there was such a shop (and why Lord Aizen would want to use space for these shops in general) was not something I had considered until now. In reality, it still did not interest me. If it had been I, I would have used the extra place to build up a larger army. From what I'd heard from Lord Aizen years ago, he had put hollows to a test, seeing which ones were worthy of his army. The weaker ones had died while the stronger survived. Some others had barely survived, with grave injuries.

"Hey!" Luppi waved a sleeve in front of my face. "Are you listening?"

I calmly swatted his hand out of my visage and continued to walk away.

"Or are you too weak to drink?"

I sighed unnoticeably, looking over my shoulder. "I do not need to do or consider anything you suggest, trash."

He used sonido to appear in front of me and waved a small glass filled with the alcohol in my face. "If I didn't know better I'd say that you're too weak."

"And as I said before, drinking vile liquids such as those—" I eyed the drink, unfazed on the outside but disgustedly on the inside, "—does not do one good. You may feel free to drink every beverage on those shelves by yourself."

"Ah, you're too mean," he whined. "A little sip isn't gonna hurt ya."

I'd had enough. Taking the glass, I gulped down the liquid in less than a second. It tasted bitter but I swallowed it, even tipping the glass so every last drop could enter my mouth.

"Is that satisfactory?" I asked rhetorically and threw him the glass. He fumbled and almost dropped it—I could imagine the crash of glass against the cold floor—but it never happened.

"Heh," he chuckled.

His motives were unfathomable, and I did not care for them.

After wandering, I came to the quarters of the lower arrancar. Their rooms were the farthest and most uneventful. Lower arrancar were either servants or subordinates whom cowered in the presence of the higher-ranked. They, to me, were useless.

A small male arrancar bumped into me as I walked, mumbling a quick apology before trying to walk away. My hand went to his shoulder and turned him around, looking into his eyes. They showed nothing but fear; the images were immediately shown again and this time they stayed for about half a minute. His shoulders shook as I kept my grip on him.

"I…I'm sorry," the boy looked down and fumbled with his hands. _How had this one made it past the bloodshed decades ago? _"P-please…I'll do anything, just please don't hurt me…"

My eyes narrowed for a second—in a inconspicuous way—but he noticed and flinched. My grip on his shoulder lessened and he hesitantly walked away, then broke into a run down the hall. A seemingly strong-willed woman stood at the doorway, watching the scene unravel. As I walked past, she continued to stare. I raised my spiritual pressure a bit as I walked out of her sight as a warning.

It was as if there was no border between superior and subordinate; all attitudes were the same towards each other, now. It make me slightly irked to know that the lesser arrancar saw themselves on the same ground as the espada, although they could easily be killed by one of us.

'_I stood there, barely acknowledging what I'd done. My hands. I looked down at my hands. I did this.'_

Blinking as my eyesight returned to normal once again, I looked at my hands. Had I truly killed that woman in my dream? Was that really my past or a strange figment of my imagination? I constantly told myself not live in the past—but a small part of my mind still searched for unnecessary answers. With unnecessary memories, would come unnecessary emotions. Needless and purposeless, meaning nothing. They'd—

"Get outta my way!" an all-too familiar voice commanded. "Hey, Schiffer!"

"Trash," I muttered under my breath and turned a corner with intent to lose him. Lowering my spiritual pressure to the lowest point possible, I walked a bit faster and eventually lost track of his own pressure. He was a bit similar to Ichigo Kurosaki; both of them did not bother to let down their spiritual power, making their locations obvious.

"Ulqui—Gah!" I felt a foreign pressure appear and interfere with Grimmjow's. I took this as my opportunity to use sonido and get away. The images appeared once again and this time they appeared in both eyes, momentarily blinding me.

'_Her lips brushed over his. __My breaths became uneven and my hands clenched, for the tingling in my hands had gotten stronger with her actions.'_

I stopped myself barely from crashing into the wall as my vision came back. _This is getting out of hand_…Sighing, I checked my surroundings. It was a rural hallway, the numbers 4129 etched into the top of the door. _Alexia_. It was unsettling, the way I'd encounter her when I had no need to.

As soon as her name passed my mind, arrancars Menoly and Loly stormed out of her room, slamming the door behind them. Seeing me standing there and catching them, they froze in place and locked eyes with mine as the images started up once again.

"Make yourselves useful," I advised and warned before opening the door to Alexia's room and going inside.

The room was cluttered and Alexia's possessions were strewn all over the room. Piles of paper were scattered over the floor and pencils—other utensils as well—were littered around. _Those two_...Eyeing the bed, a large lump slowly rising and falling was the only thing that seemed unharmed. The sheets rose higher and slipped down to reveal Alexia. Despite it being several hours into the day, she was only half awake. Her hair was slumped and in clumps and there was a darkened area around her eyes. She sighed, stretching her arms yet not opening her eyes.

"Woman," I said.

"Before I open my eyes, please tell me that the mess they made wasn't as bad as it sounded."

I did not answer. She sensed what I meant and slowly opened them. Even before they were fully opened, she saw the hopeless clutter and fell back onto the bed with a loud sigh.

"I can't believe them…," she whispered, rolling onto her side. I came up to her and she realized that I was over her and she shifted under my gaze. "So…uh, hi."

"You should be awake by now," I informed her, pulling the covers back. She immediately panicked and grabbed the sheets, preventing me from fully retreating them.

"Uh…"

"What is wrong, woman?"

"I just—my sleepwear, I don't like how much skin it shows," her face reddened a bit and I let the covers go.

"Why would you wear something revealing too much skin?"

"I'm sleeping," she laughed tiredly, "nobody's going to care what I wear. Comfort is the issue, and what I'm wearing is comfortable."

Nodding, I went to the disorder on her floor and began to pick up the papers and utensils.

"Ah, you don't have to do that…"

Silence was her answer. I heard the rustling of sheets and she yawned once again before getting out of her bed to help me. "Woman, I thought you disliked showing skin."

She did not meet my gaze as she said, "Well, knowing you, I knew it wouldn't be a problem. If I've got my facts right, you don't pay attention to those kinds of things."

"That is correct."

She crouched on the tips of her feet, picking up pencils and paintbrushes while I gathered the papers. Looking out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed that what she'd said was true; an expanse of her legs that I had never seen before now showed. She was wearing a short pair of pants with a loose shirt sloping over her shoulders. A shirt of the same color showed under that one. For a moment, her eyes met with mine and she grew flustered, sitting with her legs folded under her in an attempt to shield herself.

"It is alright, woman," I assured her and reached over to grab her utensils. With a closer range in between us, she shied away and hid her face in between her knees. "Why are you flustered?"

"I…I hate showing skin…"

"Nothing seems to be abnormal with your skin, Alexia."

Her shoulders tensed, giving me an indication of her embarrassed feelings. For some time, she stayed in the same position while I continued to pick up her possessions. She continued as I organized them on her dresser and made her bed. The only time she moved was when I had to remove the bed sheets, which she was in the way of; she managed to do so without showing her face. While making her bed, I saw the music box I'd given her hidden under the sheet and picked it up. Observing it for a moment, I wound it and set it in front of her, opening the top so the melody would play. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw her lift her head a bit to stare at the device as it played.

_ 'The woman narrowed her eyes and I knew she'd seen me. Her hand reached out and I flinched, knowing I would be put outside to endure the rainy atmosphere. I hated rain; it wasn't a fear but a blinding hate to see the droplets of water falling down from the sky. __I awaited her words, telling me to get out before she called someone in, but it never happened. Instead, her hand went through my non-substantial chest and picked up something from the ground, then went on her way.'_

My hand shot out to keep me from stumbling onto the bed as the images went away.

**'It's so amusing when that happens.'**

_Are you doing this?_

**'Who can say?'**

"Ulquiorra?" Alexia's voice called out. "Are you all right?"

"I am," I answered, turning to face her. To my surprise, she saw through my lie with a raised eyebrow. But instead of prodding for an answer, she looked away and helped me.

"I didn't see them coming," she suddenly murmured. "I was barely awake and thought it was a dream, but when I felt their hands on my arms I was pretty sure it wasn't. They started accusing me; telling me that I wasn't special, that I'd die because of my stupidity, that Aizen wasn't going to ever turn me into an arrancar."

I paid a bit more attention as she said her last sentence.

"I shouldn't have, but I laughed when they said that last part. The idea of becoming an arrancar—sure, it's crossed my mind—but if I really think about it, I can't see myself as one. My resurrection, my hollow mask, how it would work out, I just couldn't imagine myself in a form like that. I thought they were going to beat the hell out of me, but they took it out on my stuff instead for some strange reason."

We were done rearranging the bed by then; she sat down on it and set a pillow on her crossed legs, relieved that she was finally able to cover herself a bit more. For a moment, she looked up at the ceiling of her room with a thoughtful expression. Then, she smiled and tilted her head towards me and spoke.

"I want to be human. There's plenty of awesome things to do when you're an arrancar, but I'd rather be like this—powerless and human."

A feeling arose in my chest at the sight of her like this. It was a bit foreign but oddly comforting. At the same time, I felt my eyes starting to conjure up the visions again and had an idea. Taking a seat on the bed as well, I calmly plucked out my eye and held it in front of me. With my other eye, I saw Alexia's clearly surprised expression.

"W-what are you doing? I mean, I know, but _why_?"

"There is something I would like to show you," I explained simply and crushed my eye, observing her reaction as the particles dispersed into the air. Watching Alexia, her pupils dilated and became blank as the images transferred to her mind, seeing the same that I had. Frozen in place, her fingers occasionally twitched along with the rise and fall of her chest. After a few minutes—although I was sure the dream had lasted much longer—her pupils turned to their original form and she began to move again. It was a different process from how an arrancar saw my eye's visions, but I presumed it was because of her being human. She fidgeted, obviously disturbed by what I'd shown her.

"What…was that…?"

"A dream I had," this time I averted my gaze as the particles of my eye quickly gathered and reformed in my socket. Instead of turning away as I thought she would do, she watched in interest. "What do you think of it?"

"Well…," she ran a hand though her hair and winced after realizing that it was tangled. "Was that a memory or just your imagination?"

I did not answer. The images were not showing anymore. _Perhaps the solution was simply to show someone?_

"I wouldn't really be surprised if it was a memory," she concluded. "This shows you when you were most likely a spirit. Usually, spirits have Kônso performed on them in order for them to get to Soul Society, but you seemed like an earthbound soul, which are chained to a place because of a certain tie they have to it."

I thought of the woman in the dream whom I'd said was supposed to visit me. Had she never showed up, leading in my human death and spiritual attachment to the hospital?

"It surprised me, though; no Soul Reaper ever came to perform a Kônso on you. From what I've seen, you most probably lived in the late 1800's or early 1900's. I guess you became a hollow on the spot after that happened, the question is how you got to Hueco Mundo…"

A realization came to me. "Woman," I started.

"Hm?"

"How do you have such an extended knowledge of Soul Reapers?"

As she had done the previous time, her eyes widened and she panicked a bit. "Er…well, I guess you could say that—"

"I need a direct answer, Alexia," I warned.

Sighing, she went into thought for a moment and reluctantly started, "I want to go to Chicago this week…"

"Answer my question, Alexia."

"Just wait for me to finish!" she crossed her arms haughtily and gave me a stern glare which I returned.

"Continue."

"There's a place where I can show you how I got all this information—" she averted her gaze for a moment, "—even what I know about your Segunda Etapa."

This caught my attention. "In Chicago."

She nodded.

"Are you sure, woman, or are you lying to me?"

She glared half-heartedly, seeing a bit of hurt in her eyes. "Why would I lie? You'd see through them right away. I'm a terrible liar."

"What is this place of information?" I asked. She simply shook her head. "Tell me."

"I'll tell you once we go there," she argued. "There's something else I'd like to do, too."

"What?"

"I want Grimmjow to come with us."

"…"

She fidgeted under my gaze. "I-i won't show you my source of information if you don't let him come with us."

It left me with no choice. Whomever had given her information of the world of Soul Reapers and hollows were saying quite too much. We'd have to obliterate them. "Fine."

She smiled a bit. "You're pouting."

"I do not pout."

"You do now," she laughed, falling back into the bed and yawning.

"How much did you sleep, woman?"

"I actually had a dream, too, but I don't even remember what it was now that I think about it," she said and put on a thoughtful expression, a poor attempt to hide her concern over her own dreams. I decided not to force an answer out of her.

"Woman."

"Yeah?"

"You are quite a piece of work," I remarked, gazing at her. She blushed a bit, although I did not see the aspect in which she should become flustered.

"Haven't gotten that one before…," she mumbled. Though I was not sure why, my mind wandered to the events two days ago, when we were in the water.

"Woman, are you still willing to go through with instructing me?"

A clueless expression appeared on her visage but quickly disappeared as she remembered what we'd agreed to. "Ah. Yeah."

She did not seem to be willing.

"If you presume that it is too much for you to handle, then you do not need to agree to what I wanted. After all, you always seem to be flustered and hesitant to do certain activities when I am in your presence."

"W-well, I mean, you know why…," she jumped up from the bed and picked up her music box from the floor, whose melody had ceased some time ago. She was partially correct.

"I fail to see how love can make you hesitant and clumsy. It seems to be a hindrance."

"No, it's nothing like a hindrance, but—the thing is…" She kept fumbling for the right words while she wound up the device. "It all depends on the feelings of both of the people involved."

The weight of her words did not reach me. "How should it make a difference?"

"Well, we're a perfect example."

I resisted the urge to raise an eyebrow as she clamped a hand over her mouth at the realization of what she'd said.

"N-no, I just meant t-that…er…"

Her face had never been redder.

"Explain, woman," I instructed in a firm tone. She bit her lip and willed herself to calm down. It took a few moments, but she finally gathered her thoughts and managed to say them without faulting throughout it.

"So, I have feelings for you that you don't have. At the most, you think of me as a friend, and I do as well, but I wished it would be something more. If we were to become a couple, I'm not sure it would work out because you don't fully understand the concept of loving someone. Now, if you had a couple in which both of them understood and loved each other, it would be a mutual and stable relationship. Both of them benefit from having the other around and interacting with them the way they do."

She took a deep breath after she was done, the red coming onto her face once again.

"I see." Although I did not understand a small portion, the rest was clear to me. She was relieved that she did not have to explain for a second time. "I can also understand your purpose for thinking of us when it came to this subject."

Hurt was shown in her eyes for a split second before she gave a nervous laugh. "I know, right? It's just a fitting situation because…we're just like that first example."

Opening the music box, the melody flowed through the room and she set it on the dresser, then came back to the bed and jumped on happily, putting on a façade that I immediately saw through. She ran a hand through her hair, wincing again and giving a small laugh.

"I'm lucky I kept the music box under the covers," she murmured, "or else Menoly and Loly would've smashed it to bits."

An uncomfortable air settled in the room as she continued to act as if she was not fazed by our conversation.

"Alexia."

She was deep in thought.

"Alexia…"

Blinking a few times, she realized I was calling her and smiled. "Yeah?"

"You are bothered."

"Not necessarily."

I remained silent as she went to the bed again and laid down on her side, her back to me.

"I don't know," she started. "The truth is that I never should've developed these kinds of feelings for you in the first place; I knew what you were like. The way you are isn't exactly bad or anything, but I liked it a bit too much. I also knew how you were about the heart and love and all that stuff. So, I guess I was blinding myself and saying that it was alright to think that way—even though it's not. Now it's just coming back to bite me in the ass."

Her voice wavered at the end as she yawned and curled into a fetal position. "Woman?"

"I'm planning on resting today," she informed me. "I have a headache and I haven't been sleeping much these past few days."

I got up from the bed and went to her washroom. She watched me as I searched her cabinet and came back with some painkillers. Recognition flashed on her features for a second and disappeared as she started to sit up, but I put a hand on her shoulder and told her to stay down. Her face reddened and I removed my hand from her shoulder. Whilst she laid down again, I returned to the bathroom and got a glass of water and told her to face upward as I retreated two pills from their bottles and held them up to her lips; but one of them fell off the side of her mouth as I deposited them and I reached an arm over her torso, trapping her as I reached for the fallen substance. Her face became a bit red, once again, and she grabbed my shoulders, telling me that she could do it instead.

My eyes locked with her wavering ones and a nostalgic feeling rose—one that was not welcome.

"What. The hell."

It was him.

444444444

Ulquiorra: ._. I thought she would have liked stuffed animals…

Me: That stuffed bear looks like it belongs in a rehabilitation center for people that are overloaded on happiness -_-

Grimmjow: O_O Do those exist?

Unbr0ken: (Facepalm)

Ulquiorra: Alexia… (Knocks on door to room)

Alexia: …

Ulquiorra: (Kicks door open to reveal Alexia crouched on the floor with her arms wrapped around her knees)

Everyone: -.-'

Alexia: ;-;

Ulquiorra: T_T Did you not like the gift?

Alexia: T-T (Shakes head) I appreciate that you took the time to get me a gift, but that bear looked like it was going to kill me if I did so much as blink •-•

Grimmjow: Seriously, you should've saved that one for April fools'.

Unbr0ken: (Trying not to laugh)…

Me: Don't worry, we already disposed of it -.-'

Alexia: (Hopeful glint in eyes) R-really?

Ulquiorra: (Nods, hugging Alexia)

Alexia: O/_/O U-ulquiorra…

Me: (A bit jealous)

Unbr0ken: (Holds up the supposedly disposed-of bear) :D

Me: (Whispering) WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT!?

Unbr0ken: (Shows Alexia the bear while she's still hugging Ulquiorra)

Alexia: O_O…

Ulquiorra: T_T?

Alexia: (Buries head in Ulquiorra's chest)

Ulquiorra: Woman, what are you doing? (Turns around and sees bear)…

Unbr0ken: (Peeks at Ulquiorra from behind the bear) :D

Ulquiorra: (Charges cero)

Unbr0ken: T_T Kouki!

Kouki: (Eating cheesecake) I'm busy here!

Unbr0ken: T-T I'm about to be ceroed to bits.

Kouki: T_T I'm not your—Nevermind. (Takes a bite out of cheesecake and unsheathes sword) Schrash, thighr—guh! I really shouldn't try to go into resurreccion when eating cheesecake -_-

Unbr0ken: I don't even think you have a resurreccion anymore…

(Tense atmosphere dissipates)

Alexia: O/./O (Realizes what she's doing and lets go of Ulquiorra) -/_/-

Me: Good to see that this is resolved ^_^ Sort of…see you next week!

Grimmjow: So, what do we do with the bear?

Unbr0ken: :D

Everyone: -_-

Song of the week: Alejandro by Lady Gaga


	26. Left in the Dark

Unbr0ken: Yo! Grimm, Ulqui!

Grimmjow and Ulquiorra: T_T

Unbr0ken: :D What kinda girls do you like? (Tries to hide the earpiece attached to his ear)

Grimmjow: (Notices device and turns to Ulquiorra, whispering) You remember that auburn-haired chick that Arekushia hates?

Ulquiorra: T_T Orihime Inoue?

Grimmjow: List off her characteristics and we'll be all good :D

Unbr0ken: Hey, I'm not gonna wait forever ^_^… (Hears me through the earpiece)

Me: (In room next door, sitting at a table and speaking to Unbr0ken) _'Have they answered you yet?'_

Unbr0ken: (Whispering) I'm about to, don't get so impatient…

Me:_ 'I'm not impatient, you're just dragging.'_

Unbr0ken: Shut it, we both know you're doing this because you want to live up to Ulquiorra's expectations.

Me: _'…'_

Unbr0ken: I can see your blush through the speaker (Smirks, then turns to Ulquiorra and Grimmjow and talks at normal level) So, have you guys gathered your thoughts? Let's start with hair color ^_^

Grimmjow: I don't know T_T

Ulquiorra: Auburn.

Me: _'…'_

Unbr0ken: O_O Ah. Ok. Um, what about eye color?

Ulquiorra: Gray T_T

Grimmjow: (Internally laughing his ass off)

Unbr0ken: (Amused) What about her size?

Me:_ 'JAY!'_

Ulquiorra: T_T Size of what?

Me: (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Ulquiorra: (Hears crash of table through next door) …

**SEPTEMBER TWENTIETH, PART TWO**

It couldn't have been better—

Worse. I meant worse.

"Woah, I didn't know you guys were that close," I could hear the mocking tone in Grimmjow's voice. "What were you gonna do if I hadn't come in here?"

I willed myself to calm down, clearing my throat and locking eyes with Ulquiorra. He still didn't budge from his spot over me. "G-get off…!" There was a look in his eyes that I'd never seen before. "Ulquiorra!"

"If you kiss her I'm gonna puke," Grimmjow remarked, then made a gagging sound to demonstrate. This finally pulled Ulquiorra out from whatever trance he was in.

"Forgive me," he whispered as he retreated his arm, holding the pill back up to my lips. I opened them hesitantly and he slipped the capsule in, tilting the glass of water to help me pass them down. How he knew I was horrible at taking pills, I didn't know; I couldn't take a pill to save my life unless I was being extremely careless or did it a certain way. Doing it like this was the way I preferred to take them.

"It's alright," I murmured after swallowing the pills along with the water, sitting up and immediately feeling a pounding in my head that made me wince. "But my head isn't…"

"You have a headache or something?" Grimmjow asked halfheartedly.

"No, I have athlete's foot," I exaggerated. "Of course I have a headache."

"And you're PMSing on top of that…"

I threw a pillow at him that hit him square in the face, for once. "Shut the fuck up! I am not!"

"Oh, shut up—seriously, don't be hating on people when you have a headache unless ya want it to hurt more," Grimmjow advised. I sighed and fell back, covering my head with the pillow.

"Don't be a bastard and provoke me, then."

Shaking his head, he helped himself and laid down on the couch and was about to take a nap when I threw another pillow at him.

"The hell's with you?" he mumbled.

"Ulquiorra's still here."

"So?"

"You haven't exactly said anything to him."

"Yeah I did. I told him that I'd puke if he kissed you."

"…That's not much of a greeting."

He shrugged, yawning and curling up with his back to us.

"I'm going to take a shower, and you better be here when I come back," I forced myself to sit up, trying my best to ignore the irritating and painful feeling of my pulse pounding in my head. "Tell Ulqui to stay, too."

"Ulqui?"

"Orra," I quickly added, quickening my pace to the bathroom and slamming the door behind me. My eyes were squeezed shut as I fought the pain and started the hot water, then almost forgot to take off my pajamas before going in. The water was steaming—which made me jump back and almost slip. All I wanted to do was relax and I ended up nearly burned.

The hot water soothed me, making me sigh and soak there, not doing anything but enjoying it. My headache had ceased a bit, but the pain was still there and irritating me to no end. I'd done nothing to deserve a headache, either.

I'm not sure how it came to be, but my thoughts came to a dream of my own. The contents of it were unclear; all I remembered were bits and pieces in no particular order. Closing my eyes, I saw some of it again—a Soul Reaper, unsheathing his zanpakuto. Then there was a huge hollow towering over me. And finally, I saw myself walking in an abyss of darkness, desperately looking for an exit. They didn't make any sense to me.

"Hey! How long are you gonna take?!" Grimmjow's voice yelled.

"Shut up…," I groaned back. Sighing, I finished up and dressed up lazily. It had been in my intentions to train today, but with my goddamned head hurting like this it didn't look like that was going to happen anytime soon. I brushed out my hair with one hand while I brushed my teeth with the other and looked at myself in the mirror. _God, I look like a zombie._

Next up was Ulquiorra's dream. I hadn't been expecting him to actually show me something intimate like that; from how he was acting and what he'd said, I guessed that I was the first person he'd told about it. That dream was crystal clear. It disturbed me, somewhat, but what I felt at first was sadness. Seeing him like that made me want to grab him and hug the living daylights out of him. That didn't mean I had the guts to do so.

That girl had pissed me off, to an extent. From Ulquiorra's actions—and some of what I felt from him during the dream—I could conclude that she was in a relationship with him, a special one at that. I'd felt like crying when I saw the tears going down his face. It irked me that I was so emotional now, compared to how I was before. Then again, it was him—it was excuse enough.

I emerged from the bath fully dressed in a flowing, bright red Greek-style dress that went up to my knees. It had gold trim and a large expanse of my back showed, along with my shoulders. In reality, I loved these types of dresses; the only issue was how much skin it showed.

"Are you going on a date or something?" Grimmjow immediately noticed my appearance with a raised eyebrow. Ulquiorra, on the other hand, didn't pay attention until I cleared my throat. I felt the regular heat creep onto my face as I saw him scanning my clothes as if he was my father of something. A harsh pounding began again and I fell onto the bed.

"I never knew my brain could be such a bitch…," I murmured into my pillow.

"What happened?" he asked. His tone of voice implied that he didn't really give a shit.

"Nothing," I sighed.

"Do you need more painkillers?" Ulquiorra's voice sounded closer than it actually was. Nodding silently, he got the whole container of them and handed them to me, setting another glass of water on the table; I gave him a smile and took two more, this time having less trouble to swallow them.

"I think that Ulquiorra's more of a brother than you, Grimm," I muttered at him.

"That's not possible."

"Why not?"

"Because you regard him as something else."

I felt my face heat up a bit. "E-either way, he treats me with more care than my…sort of biological…brother."

"Good, that means I don't have to take care of you all the time."

I directed a halfhearted glare at him and covered my eyes with a hand, taking a deep breath. It was almost as if the pills were actually making the headache worse. "So."

"What now?" he grumbled.

"You can come with us," I accounted as happily as I could. "So you better not be an asshole for the rest of the week."

"Do you know how hard that is?"

I laughed a little. "That's what she said."

"On top of PMSing and having a headache, you're a pervert now, too?" he started laughing along with me.

"Both of you seem easily amused when tired," Ulquiorra noted, sitting on the bed again; I saw Grimmjow raise an eyebrow at me and I waved dismissively even though on the inside I was a bit jittery.

"Were you planning to be a couch potato all day?" Grimmjow got up and stretched. "You should train or something, make yourself useful."

"Oh, 'kay, I'll definitely put myself through physical hell and work out while I have something that feels worse than migraine just so I can fuck with myself," I mumbled, emphasizing with my hands. "Because that's the best effin' idea ever, Grimmjow."

He stuck the middle finger at me, which I returned with thrice as much gratitude.

The scene of all three of us being in the same room like this gave me a sense of deja vu. Hadn't we all been here about a week ago or something? Why were we all here?

_Ah_.

"Grimmjow, what happened that day a week ago when you left with Ulquiorra?" I asked, my mind at least a little piqued by this subject to ease some of the pain in my head. "Both of you seemed really eager to say stuff to each other. Are you guys—what's with that look you're giving me?"

Grimmjow quickly cleared his throat and looked away, but the look of unease was still visible. "W-we just argued and stuff. The usual." He sent a glare to Ulquiorra, daring him to say otherwise.

"He is correct."

I sighed in frustration. Being left out and not being told the truth were two things I absolutely hated. That and insects and hot weather and Aizen—I should stop there. I also knew that it was annoying for someone to prod for answers and decided not to do so. If they wanted to keep things from me, that was perfectly fine with me.

"He approves of your claimed love," said Ulquiorra with so much certainty that I was in shock for a second. "Although his reasons are unclear."

"W-well, that's Grimmjow for you," I averted my gaze and glared at the said blue-haired bastard. 'Why would you say that!?' I mouthed.

He only shrugged with a smug grin on his face.

Ulquiorra suddenly took something out of his pocket. A sleek, rectangular device. His cellphone? Grimmjow seemed twice as surprised to see Ulquiorra using a phone on a regular basis.

"We should probably get you a phone, too," I suggested to Grimmjow.

"Wait, why do I need one of those?" he regarded me words as an insult, which made me facepalm.

"If one of us gets lost or something we'll need means to communicate."

"Implying that a guy is going to get lost."

I reached for my dagger but it wasn't on its usual place on top of my dresser. "Damn it, Grimmjow, where did you put my knives!?"

"Why do you think I took them away from you? Every time you get at least a little mad at me your solution is to grab something with a sharp point and throw it at me! I thought I was supposed to be the violent one here."

Narrowing my eyes, I stuck my tongue out and crossed my arms. "Not my fault you're…"

"I'm what?"

I shook my head. What I was about to say would've made the atmosphere hostile. 'It's not my fault you're not as strong as when you were the sixth.' I'd already let my thoughts slip with Ulquiorra—thank god Grimmjow hadn't been there to see it. He would've done one of two things: laugh his ass off or—

You know what, just that one.

"So, what the hell are you doing with that thing, Schiffer?" he diverted his attention from me and I let out a small sigh in relief. "There's no one to text here."

Ulquiorra looked up briefly and met Grimmjow's eyes. There was a mental exchange in between them and then the atmosphere was silent.

"Ouch…," I murmured. The pain became even more intense and I shut my eyes. "Why do I deserve this, again?"

When I opened my eyes, Grimmjow was getting on the bed as well, right behind me. I felt pressure on my temples and realized what he was trying to do. Ulquiorra looked up once again and this time his gaze stayed.

"What are you doing?" he asked; to which one of us, I didn't know.

"What does it look like? I'm trying to ease her headache," Grimmjow replied as if Ulquiorra had asked what his name was. "Since someone else didn't do anything I had to take it into my own hands."

"I gave her medication," Ulquiorra deadpanned. "Does putting pressure on her head make the pain better or worse?"

To tell the truth, it was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable. That also could've been because Grimmjow was starting to get angry, meaning that the casual pressure was increasing little by little. "Er, Grimmjow, you think you could ease up on—"

"It makes it better, of course!" he completely ignored me, intent on winning this half-assed argument with Ulquiorra. I sighed and tried to endure their discussion, hearing something about methods of greater pain and how he didn't give a shit as long as it made me feel better. Crossing my arms, I completely gave up on them and did my best to ignore the pain from Grimmjow.

"Do you not see that you are further harming her?" Ulquiorra's words rang out to me and I opened my screwed eyes. He was right in front of me, peeling off Grimmjow's hands from my head. Having his hands so close to me made me blush. There was a certain look on his face, not as intense as the one before but still holding traces of it. "Woman. Do you see something which interests you?"

_You_.

I could only imagine what would happen if I actually said that. "Are you alright? You've been acting differently lately."

"I am fine," he replied. _Oh, I know you are._

_ What the hell, Alexia? Stop thinking like that!_

"I see…," I murmured. "Thanks for preventing Grimmjow from crushing my skull."

"Hey!"

"It's true!" I snapped my head towards him. "My god, I thought you were gonna give me a fracture or something!"

"Well, why didn't you tell me?"

"How could I when you were arguing and not caring about what I said?" I sighed again—I was doing that a lot today—and shook my head. "You should be more aware of your surroundings and the people in them. Especially when you're angry."

"Okay, okay. But of course you don't scold Ulquiorra…," he muttered, getting off of the bed and heading towards the door.

"Come back here!" I jumped off and ran towards him, making a grab for his jacket.

Huge miss.

"W-what the hell, Alexia!" Grimmjow exclaimed. "The fuck are you trying to do?"

"It was an accident, god!" I retreated my hand from his hollow hole. "Why do you have your hollow hole there anyways?" We started having a glaring contest, me crossing my arms at him and him only using his face. Technically, we were evened out.

"I shall leave now."

We both turned to Ulquiorra. I didn't like the hint of anger in his eyes. _We'd completely been ignoring him_, I realized._ Just like everything else in his dream_. I averted my gaze and cleared my throat.

"I'm sorry…," I started.

"There is nothing to apologize for," he replied, heading towards the door which we were in the way of. Guilt consumed me and I fidgeted, trying to find the right words; at times I was horrible at saying appropriate things at their appropriate times. "Do not apologize."

Again with the mind reading?

"Wait," I grabbed the sleeve of his jacket and prevented him from leaving. He looked over and I swore I saw him raise an eyebrow.

"What is it, woman?"

At this point I didn't care that Grimmjow was here. I hugged Ulquiorra, probably earning an hour's worth of teasing from the bluenette. It was an advantage that we were almost the same height; I whispered in his ear the moment I let go of him. "You are here."

Maybe the words didn't really make sense to him as of now, but he might if he put a bit of thought into it later on today, if he even remembered what I'd said. He simply nodded and left.

"…"

"I know that you're going to say something, but please keep it to your—"

"Somebody's a really bad flirt," he started to laugh at me and sympathetically patted my head, which I swatted away with an annoyed huff. "How's your head?"

"Filled with thoughts of killing you."

"We think alike," he put his hands in the pockets of his hakama and smirked. I shook my head and replied correctly.

"It still hurts, but it's not as bad as before."

He yawned and nodded. "Which means that I can leave now?"

Raising an eyebrow I replied, "Why would you ask permission to leave? You're not the prisoner here."

"Ah, and I thought you liked my company."

"Sure, Grimmjow," I scoffed, punching his shoulder. "How's Auria?"

"Unbelievable."

I smiled at his attitude when even thinking of her. "What?" he asked cautiously.

"Oh, nothing. Continue; what have you guys been doing?"

"Just hanging out, asking each other stuff and being—well, like we used to. It's not going to be the exact same as before, though, but we're pretty close. I forgot a lot of stuff about her."

"What kind of stuff?" I led the conversation, sitting on the couch and laying my feet across it.

"Anything, really."

"You rarely ever visit your sis," I smirked.

"Yeah, well…," he hesitated. "We were talking and we noticed something."

This caught more of my attention.

"My memories started coming back when I started hanging with you more often. When Auria started to recover her memories, she also noticed that she'd been interacting with you a bit more often. We came up with the idea that it was because of you that our memories came back."

The idea of me being a cause of something like that didn't make any sense. Was it the fact that I was a human in the wrong world? Or was there something more to it? What about that woman in my head? She'd completely shut up (okay, even though I told her to shut the hell up a few times, that didn't give her an excuse to fall of the face of my…conscience?) and I was even starting to miss her.

Or it could be that I wasn't going insane anymore. That was slightly more comforting.

"…anything?"

"What?" I asked, blacking out. He smacked my forehead and I yelped in surprise. "I was just thinking, goddamnit!"

"Do you remember how you got here," he restated, a cross-popping vein appearing on his head.

"If I did I'd already have told you," I shut my eyes and rubbed my forehead. "Can you give me my dagger now?"

"Not if you're going to stab me with it."

"No…"

"You're a terrible liar."

"I had the feeling you'd say that," I murmured. "My head needs to stop killing me…ugh! And don't look at me like that, it's not like I was drinking all night."

He sighed and went to my dresser, opening a drawer; he pulled out a small dagger and threw it at me. I just barely caught it, almost cutting my hand in the process. I was prepared to throw it back at him with twice as much force when he sonidoed over to me and took the blade away.

"Can you stop being bipolar and give me the damn knife before I stab you with it?"

"I'm only giving this to you because I'm leaving," he informed, carefully handing it back to me. "You should only be using these for self-defense."

"I'd like to see that happen," I remarked.

"Or I could just take them all away from—"

"Hell no," I interrupted and held the blade to my chest. "Don't take my treasures. I need them for later."

"For what?" he asked incredulously. "It's not like Aizen's gonna let you fight in the war."

"How would you know?"

"Because it's you we're talking about. You've already proved to him several times that you're not on our side and could become a traitor. So—"

"You think I'd betray you guys?" I raised an eyebrow. Anger was making its way up my chest. "Let me set this straight for you: I'm not going to fight for Aizen. Aizen is my enemy. That doesn't mean that I'm against you guys, though. I'm not on Soul Society's side either. I don't have anything in debt to them. I'm on the arrancar's side. At least, some of you."

"Ulquiorra's on Aizen's side," he threw back at me. "Does that mean you'll fight him?"

"I'm trying to get him to realize what Aizen's af—"

"Trying, but failing. Am I right?"

I stayed silent at his words. He was right, in a sense. If we went to Chicago and I showed him how I'd found out about the Bleach universe that actually existed, there was no guarantee that he'd believe me. He might even see me as a threat and…I didn't want to think of what would happen afterwards.

"You haven't really noticed, have you? He's just…it's going to take time and patience, and lots of proof that whatever you're saying is true. And even though you guys are starting to act as more than friends—you are, anyways—that's not going to be some magic charm that suddenly makes him realize how fucked up his loyalty to Aizen is. Lately…I don't know, I've had a feeling. Don't you think that…there's something missing? Like, we have all the pieces of a puzzle but we're missing one?"

My eyebrows furrowed. "I don't know. As far as I know, there's no kind of feelings for me like that."

"Maybe you're overlooking something."

I shook myself out of my thoughts, sitting on the couch and wrapping my arms around my knees. "Even if I'm failing, I'm going to keep trying as much as I can. Giving up isn't something I do until I completely fail," I said, referring to his formal statements about Ulquiorra."

He crossed his arms at me. "What else do you have in mind to convince him, besides words?"

That's right. He didn't know either. "There's a place in Chicago where I can show him. All of this stuff I know about you guys didn't just magically pop into my head."

"A-about that…," he started, scratching the back of his head. "Aizen has different plans for you. He wants you guys to go to France. Tomorrow."

"France?" I incredulously repeated. He nodded in response. "Did he say why?"

"It's Aizen, you really think he's going to tell us why?"

"…No. But I had plans…the bastard…"

"I still get to go with you guys, though, right?" he half-pleaded. I laughed a little.

"You're such a kid sometimes."

"Hey!"

"Yeah, you're going."

I let out a yawn and went to the bed. _Good thing my head is only pounding me with a hammer now. Before it felt like a two-ton brick. _"You happen to know what time it is?"

"Not late enough to sleep for the rest of the day."

Cracking an eye open, I stuck my tongue out. "Well, that's exactly what I doing."

"I'm leaving," he turned and opened the door, waving a hand before shutting the door behind him.

_It's so uneventful now_, I reflected. I want something to happen. On cue, my phone alerted me of a new text message with a bird's chirp. It was the closest thing to having a real one. Groaning, I reached for the phone and nearly pushed it off of the dresser and onto the floor.

"Stupid," I muttered, forcing myself to putting in more effort, I finally got a grip on the phone and went to my inbox. "Ulquiorra?"

He really was turning into a teenager.

**'Hello.'**

I laughed. He wasn't usually one to say those kinds of things. **What's up?**

**'Nothing. Today is uneventful and I find myself with nothing to do.'**

**Same here. Listen, I'm sorry for what happened before u left.**

My abbreviation didn't go unnoticed by him. '**By U do you mean you?'**

**Yes. I mean, Ulquiorra. Yeah, I'm talking about you. But yeah, I didn't realize what I was doing…**

** 'There is no need to apologize, woman.'**

**Alexia. When we're sexting call me Alexia.** _Shit_. I frantically sent another message. **I mean, not sexting but texting, with a T.** **That was another mistake.** I felt my face heat up in embarrassment.

** 'That is fine, Alexia.'**

I didn't know whether he meant my typo or my apology. **Er, what is fine?**

** 'Your mistake in typing.'**

**Ah. Are you alright? Well, you are, but I just feel really bad about what happened.**

** 'That is fine as well, woman.'**

** 'Alexia.'**

I smiled. **I'm glad. I have to tell you, there's been a change of plans in our trip. We have to go to France tomorrow.**

He didn't reply for a while and I already knew why. I was supposed to show him my source of information.

** 'Why have you changed your mind?'**

** Oh, believe me; I didn't.**

** 'Then why are we not going to Chicago?'**

** It was an order from Aizen**. I waited for his response. And waited. For a while I thought he might've completely stopped with his texts randomly but after a few minutes another message was finally sent.

**'I see.'**

Damn him. My urge to throw the phone across the room plummeted as soon as he sent another message.

**'Although it would be beneficial to know his motives.'**

**I just didn't want to avoid showing you my…resources**, I replied. **I'm sorry. If you want we can still go to Chicago after, as if we weren't going to France in the first place; that'll only be if you're alright with it. But I'll make sure that for the week after this one we go to London. It's where I lived as a child.**

** 'Is London a place you think would appeal to me?'**

** Yeah. At least, more than the other places. Maybe you'll find this place tolerable.**

** 'I am starting to grow interested in the World of the Living.' **My eyes widened as soon as I read that.

**How did you get interested?**

** '…I do not know. But I noticed that I have now become anticipant of our visits.'**

I did a fistpump. **On a scale of 1-20 with 20 being a lot and 1 being only a bit, how interested are you?**

** 'I believe it would be a 3.'**

Cue the facepalm. Okay, so it wasn't as awesome as I'd thought; but we were getting somewhere. **It's a start, don't you think?**

** 'And how interested are you in Hueco Mundo?'** he exchanged questions. **'On the same scale.'**

**I'd say a 10. There's a lot of stuff I don't know about this place.** Yawning, I texted with him some more, losing track of how long we were messaging for or what we were talking about.

**'Have you ceased to feel pain from your head?'**

"Yeah…," I murmured as I began to text it out, but my eyes started shutting on me and I found myself fighting to keep myself conscious. My fingers became clumsy and it took twice as much time to write my response. **I'm a lot better now, although I would feel a lot better if you were here with me**. Somehow I'd found the guts to type that out, but the real problem was pressing the damn 'send' button. "It's just a message, Alexia. All you need to go is press send and we'll be over with…it."

A yawn broke through my self-convincing, making it less…convincing. Mentally smacking myself, I filled myself with temporary resolve and pointed a finger at the dreaded button, determined to press it; but my mind's pull towards sleep started to make me less conscious of what I was doing and what I should have been doing. My finger became weak and dropped to the the pillow—eyes blinking and sometimes staying closed for seconds on end. _No. Send it_…Breath evening out and resolve shattering, I fought against the urge but eventually gave in to slumber, not even bothering to turn the phone off.

…

**_It was like I knew I was dreaming. _****What's it called? Lucid dreaming?****_ I was there but had no control. If I tried to wake up: nothing. I was somewhere, yet nowhere. Almost like some sort of abyss._**

**_The environment around me began to take form. A river on my left, a string of what seemed to be cafés lined the street. No one thing, whether it be alive or not, made a sound; even the river's waters made no sound as the current flowed and churned. It was as if I was deaf._**

**_ Then there was the faintest of sounds, the strum of a stringed instrument, one note at a time—turning into arpeggios and chords. A guitar._** **_The sound was far away and as I traveled down the street I started to notice it getting louder. My steps quickened and the sound reverberated in my ears, a soft voice also accompanying the guitar. They were foreign words to me but I felt as if I should have known them._**

**_Slowing my pace, the music was louder than ever. I was now at the last building, an intricately built café. Upon looking inside the window, I discovered that the room was completely empty. _****Where is that sound coming from?****_ Desperation and curiosity drove me to go inside and look around, searching for a source._**

**_Nothing. Yet the music played clearer than ever before and the male voice murmured a tune that was still unrecognizable. There were no doors leading to other rooms. What was going on here? Why was I having a dream like this?_**

**_ "Oh."_**

**_ My head snapped around to the source of the voice I hadn't heard in too long a time. "You…"_**

**_ The music gradually faded, although I wanted it to continue. The music was alluring, like a siren's song. "I'm glad I can finally talk to you again. Lately things have been…restricting."_**

**_ "Where are you?" I asked impatiently, urgently wanting to know who it was that had literally been in my head the few weeks past. What did she look like? Was she like I imagined? "Come out and show me who you are."_**

**_ "I'm afraid I can't do that right now," she sighed. "As I said before, restrictions and other factors are making it more difficult for me to communicate with you."_**

**_ "What factors?"_**

**_ "I think it would be best if you found out on your own."_**

**_ "What do you mean?" I sighed exasperatedly. "I can't find out if no one ever tells me."_**

**_ "You should pay attention to the small things," she advised. "There are differences you haven't noticed. It's actually getting on my nerves a little."_**

**_ "…"_**

**_ "Pay attention!" she repeated in an annoyed tone. This was the person I was used to. "God, you're so clueless sometimes that it kills me. Do I have to point out every little thing for you?"_**

**_ "Pretty much," I said, just to mess with her._**

**_ "Don't mess with me."_**

**_ Her spot-on reply made me a bit creeped out. "S-sorry."_**

**_ She sighed and for some strange reason a feeling of warmth spread throughout me._**

**_ "What was that?' I asked._**

**_ "Whoops, I keep forgetting that I can do these kinds of things."_**

**_ "Don't change the subject," I halfheartedly scolded her. "I felt that right now; was that because of you?" I suddenly felt trapped in the empty room with its blindingly white walls. Gulping, I asked her again and waited for an answer that never came, which started to make me angry. "Answer me!"_**

**_ "Listen, there are things that I'm not supposed to tell you and things that I can't tell you, okay? This is one of the things that fit in the second category. I can't just tell you why everything in your life is happening. I'll assist you once you need help."_**

**_ Her words only confused me. "Can you answer why you haven't been talking at all these past weeks?"_**

**_ "I told you, things have been restricting. That and…"_**

**_ "What?"_**

**_ "Category two," she instead referred to her formal words. I only sighed._**

**_ "Well, can you tell me what this place is?"_**

**_ "That I can," she sounded relieved to get off topic. "This is a foreshadowing, I guess you could say. More like a remnant of your past."_**

**_ "A—"_**

**_ "Don't even start to ask me," she ordered, making me roll my eyes. "There's different forms of it, but this one's a first for you, I think. Tell me, are there people that you remember that remind you of this place?"_**

**_ "Well, I can't remember anymore; the window's gone and I don't see a door that I can get out of," I replied, growing a bit uneasy. I wasn't claustrophobic (unless we were talking about department stores), but not seeing a way out of this place made me feel trapped. "Where am I now?"_**

**_ "Don't worry, you're in the same room," she assured, "I just don't get why the window and door would've just disappeared, though…"_**

**_ I turned in a circle, inspecting the room. I estimated that it had an area of about sixty-four square feet (no pun intended) and a ceiling about ten feet tall, making it an eligible place for the claustrophobic. Something about a white room made me feel uneasy, like anything could just pop out at any se—_**

**_ A face flashed before me. It was a teenage male's, and his features were unbelievably attractive. He had glossy black hair that went down to his chin in semi-spiky strands, some of it covering his left eye. The right one shone brightly in a defiant yet playful manner, the color a striking blue-green. His skin was tan, a bit lighter than mine but barely noticeable. A smile played on his lips and they moved, but I couldn't hear or make out what he was saying. A second later he disappeared, then reappeared even closer than before._**

**_ "WHAT THE FUCK!" I yelped, nearly jumping out of my skin. I rubbed my eyes and forced myself to calm down. That face hadn't just appeared out of nowhere. "W-what the hell was that!?"_**

**_ "That was a figment of your memories," her voice soothed me but not as much as I would have desired it to. "You've been remembering things lately, haven't you? This is another one of them."_**

**_ "That face, even if it was from my memories, shouldn't have just popped up out of nowhere and scared the living shit out of me!" Looking around, I saw that it had disappeared again._**

**_ "What did it look like, exactly?" she asked, sighing. I thought about it but couldn't remember the features of the face anymore. It was like a dream that you forgot as soon as someone asked you about it, only I was still in a dream. _****Crap. What did it look like? ****_I racked my brain for an answer. I should've remembered, taking into account all the commotion I'd made about it. "Well?"_**

**_ "I don't…know," I reluctantly answered. "When you asked me about it I completely forgot. But maybe…it's should've been somebody that I knew. It's just a feeling, though, so I don't know what to think."_**

**_ "You really need to get a good look at things before you scream like a little kid about it," she chuckled._**

**_ "I didn't scream, I just shouted!" I corrected, my face red in embarrassment._**

**_ "Yuh-huh."_**

**_ A cross-popping vein appeared on my head, but I didn't press the matter further. Wandering around, I felt along the walls to see if there was some sort of hidden door that I hadn't paid attention to. Nada._**

**_ "We'll see when I can see you like this again," she suddenly said, her voice tinged with a sense of finality. "You have a long day ahead of you, right? Grimmjow and Ulquiorra within five feet of each other is going to be incredibly difficult to maintain peace with."_**

**_ "Wait, why you you have to—"_**

**_ "Category two."_**

**_ Anger rose up. "Who are you anyways? I don't know if you're a part of my imagination or real, if I should trust you or be wary of you; what the hell are you?"_**

**_ All was silent for a few moments as I willed myself to calm down a bit and she…what? Thought? Or had she already disappeared?_**

**_ "I'm sorry," she finally replied, her voice a mere whisper; but her words held so much emotion behind them that it surprised me. "I'm afraid this is all the liberty I have right now, until it happens."_**

**Until it happens? Until ****_what_**** happens?****_ My head was starting to hurt again with all the confusion around me. Why couldn't she be more straightforward?_**

_** "One more thing," she said, her voice beginning to fade. "Remember this: Time is precious, but truth is more precious than time."**_

_** I yelled out in frustration as I realized that she really was gone, for now. Now that she was gone, I'd remembered all the things I'd wanted to ask her—questions that would have to wait until next time, if it ever came.**_

_** Looking around, I saw that the door and window were back in place, the setting outside appearing to be a fantasy, which I guessed it was, in a sense. Sighing, I did my best to clear my mind and walked outside. As soon as I did that I heard the strumming of the guitar again. It calmed me and I smiled a bit, enjoying the feeling of artificial warmth from the sun in my dream world. I strolled up and down the street, scanning for other people or animals that could have been there. It would have been fun I'd been having a real lucid dream and controlled my dreams so I could make some living things appear.**_

**_ "Who is this?" I asked myself as I heard the voice singing along with the guitar. I'd long given up searching for the source of the but was still curious about it. The scene before me began to darken around the edges and I grew afraid of what was happening, remembering my other dream that was less than unpleasant. _****Wake up. Wake up. Get your ass up, Alexia…**

My eyes cracked open. For once, I'd gotten myself to wake up when I wanted to. I rubbed my eyes and yawned, then saw the phone next to my head. The battery was most likely dead by now.

"Good morning, I guess," I greeted myself. The atmosphere had a kind of early morning feel to it that made me wonder what time it really was. I went to the bathroom and washed my face to wake myself up and found a note on my dresser when I came back into my room. A phone charger.

_The Octava thought that you might have needed this. He told me to inform you to go to his lab when you wake up._

_ -Ulquiorra_

His handwriting was somewhat sloppy. _Of course that's what I notice first_, I thought with a facepalm. It wasn't like mine was any better. Plugging the phone in, it immediately flashed with notifications of new messages. I assumed they were mostly from Ulquiorra, but it wasn't too surprising when I saw that it was actually Szayel who had sent them; he'd even called me a few times. Now able to check the time came in handy—my eyes widened when I saw the time. 7:28 a.m. I'd gone to sleep pretty early, or maybe that was just a trick of my mind and I'd actually deprived myself of sleep while texting Ulquiorra.

Brushing out my hair and cleaning my teeth at the same time, I made haste in getting into my marioneta with a small sleeping gown. After getting in the faux body, I quickly put on some strapped sandals that went up to my knees, going great with the red Greek-style dress I was planning to put on that I'd been wearing when out of my marioneta. Hopefully it wasn't too cold in France, even though it was technically the fall season. I made sure I had everything with me and left my room, the compass directing me to the lab for only a part of the way; I was starting to memorize my way around some of Las Noches, finally.

"Szayel!" I called out as soon as I reached the main part of his lab. There were still bags around his eyes and his glasses were hanging off of his nose, but at least he didn't look like a zombie anymore. "I'm glad you're starting to look better."

He tiredly raised an eyebrow at me. "You don't seem worried at all."

"Why would I be worried?" I tilted my head to the side a little.

"Didn't you read the text messages I sent you? The urgent tone in them should've had you at least a bit nervous, if not frightened."

Furrowing my eyebrows, I fished my phone out and uncooked the screen, going to my inbox. I hadn't cared to actually read them because of Ulquiorra's note, but now that I was reading them—well, I could tell why he was startled at my informal calmness.

**'Alexia, I've discovered something. I need you to report to my lab. We're close, there's something missing that you can help with.'**

** 'Please answer. I've got news for you.'**

** 'I hope you don't get this message too late. I've figured it out, finally. The only issue I think we'll have now is your reactions to my methods. I'm afraid what I came up with is the only way to help him, but you're not going to like the solution.'**

I stared at the last message and reread it, finding myself excited, scared and curious at the same time. "You found it?"

He nodded, crossing his arms and resting his chin on his palm. The overriding feeling I felt now was happiness; I looked back to all the suffering I'd seen Ulquiorra go through and imagined him not having to deal with it, finally being able to express himself a bit more freely. Without a fear of someone taking his body over. Before I knew what I was doing, I'd thrown my arms around Szayel and hugged the living daylights out of him.

"A-alright…I think that's enough gratitude for a few seconds," he said breathlessly and I laughed.

"You have no idea."

His once small smile turned into a slight frown. "Alexia, you do realize that you might not like my solution?"

I nodded vigorously grinning from ear to ear. "Just tell me!" Nothing could stop me from smiling—except the look he gave me. It had the words 'don't judge too quickly' written all over it. He sighed and adjusted his glasses.

"You're not going to like what I—"

"Just tell me," I commanded, crossing my arms with a small smile still on my face. He then proceeded to finally tell me what he'd come up with.

I didn't like what I heard.

**_:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:_**

Unbr0ken: -_- Height was what I'd meant by size (Decides not to mention earlier suggestion)

Ulquiorra: …I do not know (Decides to ignore earlier commotion)

Unbr0ken: Personality?

Ulquiorra: Extremely happy, considerate of others, naive, mediocre cook…

Me: (Slams door open) What the hell is going on right now?!

Grimmjow: (Gasping for breath) xD He's not that into you, Are!

Unbr0ken: Yeah…I don't think you're Ulqui's type, Arekushia…

Me: (Raging) Grimmjow!

Grimmjow: (Puts on clueless face) :D Hey, if that's the kind of girls Schiffer's into, who am I to object?

Ulquiorra: Have I said something incorrect?

Unbr0ken: XD On the contrary, you said the perfect things.

Me: ;-; This has to be rigged! You told him to list off Orihime's characteristics, didn't you?

Grimmjow: Nope.

Ulquiorra: (At the same time) Yes.

Unbr0ken: (Nods) No ^_^

Me: -_- Thanks a lot.

Unbr0ken: So, are you gonna get gray contacts and dye your hair auburn?

Me: •-• No.

Grimmjow: You're actually going to be nice to others?

Me: I'm pretty sure both of us know that that's impossible ._.,

Ulquiorra: Will you attempt to cook for me?

Me: -/./- Probably not

Ulquiorra: (Pats Arekushia's head) That is alright.

Me: O/_/O…oh, that's right…review guys, please. It motivates me to write when I see that you guys are giving your opinions…

Grimmjow: (Gives Arekushia a noogie) :D Yeah, review!

Me: ~_~ Stop it!

Unbr0ken: Haha! That's what you get for ordering me to do this for you!

Ulquiorra: T_T We shall meet again next week, if permitted.

Song of the week: Rock That Body by the Black Eyed Peas


	27. It's like I know you or something…

Me: This is one of the first chapters where I plan out every little thing that happens XD

Kouki: Why am I in this chapter?

Alexia: Classified reasons -.- Your name is André in this chapter, so change it.

André: I prefer Kouki T_T

Ulquiorra: Is it not prohibited to use an original character of another author in a story?

Me: Not if you have permission to :D

Grimmjow: I have a feeling I should know André…

Unbr0ken: …

Me: Well, that's because…

Unbr0ken: (Covers Alexia's mouth with both hands) That's classified information!

Me: -.-

Alexia: You should put a disclaimer for him, though. You never know if there's readers who'll get pissed at you for using his character -_-

Unbr0ken: I do have tons of twitter and tumblr followers…who knows, maybe they'll form a mob, go to your house and burn it down :D

Me: Well, that's comforting…Ulquiorra, can you read the disclaimer for us?

Ulquiorra: (Nods) Disclaimer: André(or Kouki) is an OC created by Unbr0ken, not Ulquiorrarekushia4. She only has permission to use him in any way, shape or form.

André: -_-'…

**SEPTEMBER TWENTY-FIRST *GRIMMJOW'S POV***

God, how had it come to this? We'd been ready to go and Alexia was playing some sort of magic trick, I'd gotten impatient and just went through the garganta while she was still doing that. I hadn't expected us to get separated. She'd probably be alright with her prince charming beside her, but…

Hey, what about me?

I finally found an exit from the garganta and stepped out into the human world. All I knew right now was that I was in France. Someplace in Europe, I think it was? For once I found the idea of cellphones for us a good idea. Too bad I didn't care to take Alexia's when she'd offered it.

I couldn't understand what anyone was saying, which pissed me off to no end. If I asked someone to help me find my way (which I would never catch myself doing) they'd probably look at me like I was insane. I was crazy, but not _that_ crazy. Sighing, I put my hands in the pockets of the baggy denim jeans I was wearing and walked, not knowing where to go. Maybe I should've listened to Alexia, for once. There was a busy intersection ahead that slanted in two directions; to the left was more traffic and to the right was a walkway for humans, a river alongside it. If it was her we were talking about…I didn't know what she'd choose.

Plenty of people walking past stared at me— to be more precise, my hair. This trip was going to involve a lot of pissed-off-ness. A car passed by and I saw my reflection, which confused me for a second.

Oh, that's right. Apparently I was a seventeen-year-old kid now. That needed some explaining.

**_ "Did you bring your marioneta?" Alexia asked. I nervously laughed and crossed my arms._**

**_ "…No."_**

**_ "I had a feeling you would forget it," Szayel spoke up. "I took the liberty of going into your room yesterday and retrieving it for you."_**

**_ "Huh?! How'd you even get into my room?" I snapped my head towards him. He simply held up a ring of countless keys which probably gave him access to every single room in Las Noches._**

**_ "In the end it was beneficial, was it not?"_**

**_ "…Whatever."_**

**_ "There's a problem, though," Szayel's face foreshadowed what he was about to say and I mentally prepared myself. "I spilled a bit of substances and some of them contaminated both Ulquiorra's and your marioneta. I would say the results aren't extremely unfortunate, but that is for you to decide."_**

**_ He led us to two hospital beds where our marionetas were. There were no obvious differences…wait._**

**_ "What happened to them?" Alexia walked up with wide eyes. "They look…younger. No offense, guys."_**

**_ It was true. My marioneta was less muscular and I could tell that it was about an inch shorter than me. The hair and eyes were the same, along with my skin—but for some reason I just looked younger._**

**_ "According to statistics," Szayel started—I would've tuned him out as soon as he'd said that but it concerned me— "Your marioneta's physicality regards you as about Alexia's age, maybe a year younger or so. Under the usual circumstances you would appear as a twenty-four year old, Grimmjow. Ulquiorra…you'd most likely be around twenty-one. Does this inconvenience you?"_**

**_ I nodded. Ulquiorra shook his head. I was _****not****_ a kid._**

**_ Ulquiorra was already getting into his faux body. As if he'd gone through some magical aging procedure, he blended in with his body and immediately changed. The difference in his appearance with our new ages didn't apply to him; he looked almost exactly the same._**

**_ "Can I just shadow you guys or something?" I asked._**

**_ "I don't see the problem with your marioneta," Alexia said, shrugging._**

**_ "You can barely see my muscles…"_**

**_ Both Szayel and Alexia gave me are-you-kidding-me looks and I simply flicked them off and got into my marioneta. It was strange when I went into it, probably because I very rarely ever did. I couldn't remember the last time I'd put it on._**

**_ "Woah," Alexia laughed. "Szayel, is there any chance you could make him a little kid?"_**

**_ "Hell no," I hissed, narrowing my eyes. I wasn't a child, either. "Just get the garganta open, already."_**

**_ Alexia took a globe off of a table and pinpointed a place on it while Ulquiorra opened up a garganta. This whole process was starting to take too long. You go in the garganta and find your place, that's all there was to it. Alexia touched the barrier between the garganta with the globe and the whole thing sent water-like ripples through the barrier, the dark of the garganta changing to something else._**

**_ "I take it this is our cue to go through it," I remarked, taking a few steps forward._**

**_ "No, wait," Alexia warned. "The image hasn't completely changed yet…!"_**

**_ I had already walked through._**

**_ "Grimmjow!"_**

I shook my head as I walked. It made me more impatient by the second with the way everything was set up. People made things too complicated sometimes. Shaking myself out of memory, I continued to walk. It would be a while before I actually got to the intersection. The right seemed slightly more Alexia-ish. Starting off that way, I did my best to ignore the stares. People probably thought I was some sort of rebellious teenager. Good. That meant they would keep their distance.

For a moment I thought about simply giving up and going back to Hueco Mundo. _It wouldn't be wasting my time…no. You went on this trip because you wanted to—you needed to. You're going to stay. You can just wander around and do whatever you want; it doesn't matter if those two aren't with me…_

My feet abruptly stopped and my ears came to attention to the sound of a guitar. Looking around, I couldn't quite pinpoint where it was from but what I did know was that I wanted to find out. My mind directed me in the logical path, to the right like I'd originally planned. The people around me were mere humans and ceased to exist as I neared the intersection. Now the sound was a bit louder, but it was still too early to know where it was coming from. The whole situation was almost starting to piss me off, if not for the music somehow comforting me.

After almost getting run over by a few cars at the intersection (and getting beeped at by twice as many) I sighed and walked down the sidewalk full of people at cafés and performers by the river. A painter was drawing a portrait of a group of friends, a sculptor making a vase and a photographer flashing his camera every place he could. Several people attempted to talk to me but I ignored them and kept walking. The end of the block was nearing, making me choose which way to go again.

I froze in my tracks when I heard the guitar start up again, slow and more smooth than the flowing river to my right. A guy's voice sang along; it rang out above all the noise and I could swear that the people around me also turned to look for the musician. Although I couldn't understand what he was saying, I felt hints of provocation in an innocent way—which was almost impossible. Taking cautious steps, I inspected the area around me and looked for the mystery person. I was going to be pissed if I found out that what I was hearing was just a recording. As I thought that, I saw yet another café. An old jukebox was by the door and the speakers were booming.

Just fucking great.

I felt like slapping myself and probably would have done so, if not for a waitress that went up to the jukebox and turned it down, making me confused. My eyes traveled to the right and I saw him.

He sat on a high stool, his thick-lashed eyes closed and soul in the moment. His shiny black hair was straight and went up to about the mid-section of his neck, a portion of it covering his left eye. He had tanned skin, but it was a few shades lighter than mine. His skilled hands strummed the guitar and his torso moved back and forth with the rhythm. With the stool's help, he looked about my height, but I knew he was probably shorter. His lips opened only slightly and the foreign lyrics spilled out again, washing over me. His spiritual pressure—it was high, incredibly high. _Who is this kid…?_

There was an empty table next to the kid, which I sat at, observing his movements and actions. He hadn't opened his eyes yet, which I found to irk me a little. An open guitar case was in front of him and I saw several people going up and dropping euros in the case. Sighing, I pointlessly fished my pockets and came up with a ten-cent euro I'd found on the sidewalk when I'd got here. It probably wouldn't be much use to him, but I still flipped it into the case from where I was sitting. As the song ended, a few people in the café clapped for him and he acted as if they didn't exist, his hair in the way of his face as he bent down to look at what he'd gathered. Damn it.

I watched in curiosity as he picked up the ten-cent euro I'd thrown in and sat back on the stool again. He quickly started a new song, using the coin as a pick. It produced a new sound, more bright than the sound his fingers on the strings would make. This song was similar to the one that drew me to him, but was more…vacant? Was that the word? I'd never been one for music (I was bad at playing the maracas, for Hueco Mundo's sake) but it was like I had an empathy link with the music I listened to.

Time passed as I listened to that one song, drifting off a few times with my chin supported by the palm of my hand which was on the granite-topped table.

"_Merci, merci_," he murmured, giving a small bow at the applause he got. It pissed me off when I still couldn't see his eyes when he picked up the guitar and gathered the money in it, then gently set the guitar down in it and zipped up the case. Got even more pissed when he turned and said the same words as before to the person at the café's counter. Somehow—he might've even been ignoring me on purpose—he walked away from the café without showing his face. _Are you fucking kidding me…?_

Following, I saw him stop at another café and ask for permission (I guess that was what he was doing) before taking out his guitar again and leaving the case on the floor in front of him. I made my way over to him, pushing by a few slow walkers who said something in return that I'm sure wasn't a compliment.

He had his back to me, making sure his guitar was tuned. Finally, I was close enough to him. Laying a hand on his shoulder unexpectedly, I muttered, "Hey, kid."

He turned and my eyes widened in surprise. He had shockingly deep blue-green eyes. "_Ah…oui?_"

At this point I was in a bit of shock. Those eyes seemed to pull in whatever made contact with them; I was their next target.

"_Monsieur?_"

I shook myself out of my stupor and cleared my throat. Crap. I hadn't thought of what would happen after I called his attention. "Er…what's your name?"

"_Je suis désolé?_"

"What?"

"_Quoi_?"

We weren't getting anywhere. I sighed and pointed to myself. Wait, we were in France. He spoke French.

I felt like facepalming. Wondering if I still remembered any of the French I'd learned in high school, I lifted my index finger in a motion to wait.

"Uh…," I started, "_ce que ... est ... votre nom ...?_"

"_Ah, mon nom est André. Y at-il une raison pour laquelle vous avez appelé mon attention?_"

This shit was getting crazier by the second. The only thing I knew was that his name was André. "Um…"

"Grimmjow!" Alexia's voice suddenly rang out and I snapped my head around to look at her. Her cheeks were a bit red and she was out of breath, whereas Ulquiorra was as calm as ever. She slowed down and put her hands on her knees, panting for air. A look of recognition passed on André's face.

"Alexia…?"

She looked up in haste and her eyes turned as wide as saucers. "André?!"

"What's going on right now?" I asked, crossing my arms. "Do you know him?" She answered me by tackling André, which surprised everyone in a fifteen foot radius.

Well, everyone except Ulquiorra.

"It's been such a long time!" she exclaimed, a huge grin on her face. I don't think I'd ever seen her so excited. For some reason André understood her and smiled brightly at her, albeit I saw a bit of confusion on his face. "How are you?"

"_Je vais bien_," he responded, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and jostling her. "_Et comment avez-vous été_?"

"I'm great, thanks," she put some of her hair behind her ear and laughed. Maybe this was why he seemed so suspicious; he was Alexia's friend, I guessed, and hadn't seen her in quite a while. "Um…you're not a bit confused about—"

"How can you even understand what he's saying?" I changed the subject for two reasons: she was about to ask him if he'd been wondering where she's been, which would've eventually caused her to tell him about what's happening—and I was pissed because I didn't know what half the conversation was about. "You know French?"

"I forgot to tell you—well, more like I didn't have a chance to tell you," she sent a halfhearted glare my way. "You…you have to bite your tongue in order for you to understand and talk the language."

"What?" I said. "Did you do the same thing when you went to Tokyo and Mexico?"

"I didn't realize it, but I'd accidentally bit my own tongue when I'd eaten Japanese sweets…Ulquiorra had done the same thing, and he has a habit of doing it, I guess, because he did the same thing when we went to Mexico. I already knew Spanish so it wasn't a problem that time."

I looked at Ulquiorra. "So, how did you do it this time?"

She blushed profusely and looked away. "Don't ask."

Not expecting that answer, my eyes widen and I stared at Ulquiorra. He silently responded in a glare (or stare, whatever). "You mean…you kissed him? You _French_ kissed him?"

"I-it's not like that!" she hastily answered and crossed her arms. "He forced me to…apparently he remembered people doing that in the novels he's read and assumed it was the only option."

"She is correct," Ulquiorra finally invited himself into the conversation and went up behind Alexia. She stepped forward and cleared her throat, covering her face with her hair and looking away. André smiled at her and laughed.

"_Je vois que tu n'as pas changé_," he said. This was pissing me off…

"So I just bite my tongue?" I asked Alexia. She stiffened and reluctantly turned around.

"It's different for French. I'm not sure if Szayel was trying to play some sort of prank, but in order to be able to speak French someone else has to bite your tongue…"

I was surprised she'd been able to say all that without stuttering or stopping halfway through.

André tilted his head in question and I got a crazy idea. Auria would probably kill me on the spot for doing this—not that she was going to find out anytime soon. Sighing, I tapped the kid's shoulder and he looked at me, his eyes starting to suck me in again. _What the hell is going on?_

"I need your help with something," I said, seeing his eyes furrow in response. Alexia asked him in the exact same way but he somehow understood what she said.

"He says it depends on what it is," she translated.

Looking around me, I found a two hundred euro note on the table I'd been sitting next to, which I hadn't noticed before (even though the table was completely vacant). I reached over, picked it up and held it out to him. His eyes narrowed and he glared, shaking his head.

"What are you doing, Jeagerjaques?" Ulquiorra glanced at the money in my hand.

"All I'm doing is convincing him to do something for me. It's not going to take more than a second and I refuse to kiss one of you."

"Grimmjow, those are tips for the waiters here," Alexia scolded me and reached for the money but I held it above my head, supported by my height.

"_Hé, qu'est-ce que tu fais?!_" the cashier caught me red handed and I panicked a bit.

"Just fucking great," I muttered. Before anyone could object, I grabbed the kid's wrist and pulled him away from the café, running away with the money and musician with me.

"Grimmjow?!" I heard Alexia's voice in the distance but I didn't turn around.

I ran down a busy street, winding myself through a crowd of tourists and lovesick couples and turning the corner into a deserted alley. At this point André started to panic and struggled against me. _Sorry, kid._

"_Qu'est-ce que tu fais?!_" he successfully pulled away but I caught him by his waist and trapped him in between a wall and kissed him. He immediately started to struggle, pounding against my chest and incoherently yelling at me. His mouth was already open so I slipped my tongue in. As I thought, he bit my tongue in an attempt to get me off and I immediately pulled away afterwards, wiping off my mouth.

"That's all there is to it," I concluded, holding out a hand to him. He had slid down to the ground and was covering his face, taking deep breaths. "Come on, kid, I've got your money right here, just take it and we'll forget this ever happened." He got up shakily and I expected him to at least take the money I held out with my other hand.

I was _not_ expecting him to knee me in my stomach.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" he exclaimed, glaring at me with both eyes exposed. A small blush was on his cheeks and he was still trying to calm down. "You pervert!" I only grinned, somehow grimacing in pain at the same time as I doubled over and let the pain completely show on my face. _Damn kid._

"I wasn't planning to kiss the emo bastard or my sister anytime soon. You were the only option. Besides, you would've been the only one to get it over with this quickly," I ignored the obvious pain and stood straight, half a foot taller than him. "It's all over now, just forget it."

He threw another kick at me and I just barely dodged it. "Don't you have any consideration for what other people might think?!"

"Like I care," I grabbed the front of his shirt and began to pull him along, handing him the money as we headed back to the café. A sharp pain hit my hand and I jolted. "You did not just fucking bite me, you brat!"

"That's what you get," he muttered, walking ahead of me and disappearing. As I realized that I didn't know my way back, I ran after him, just barely keeping track of his black-haired head. He seriously needed to be taller. After a few minutes I saw the familiar café and used that as a reference point instead. I had a nice welcome back gift, too.

"Grimmjow!" Alexia threw a punch at me and I caught it in my palm, throwing it to the side and causing her to nearly fall. "Don't tell me you actually…!"

"It was quick," I concluded bluntly.

"That was a bit vulgar of you, Grimmjow," Ulquiorra said.

"Like you give a shit."

I turned and saw André with his back to me, furiously getting his guitar and case, slapping the two-hundred bill on the table I'd gotten it from and getting thanked for it by the employees. He only nodded curtly and hurriedly tried to leave, but Alexia caught the sleeve of his graphic tee and he reluctantly stopped, sighing and running a hand through his hair.

"I'm sorry," she apologized for me.

"Yeah…," he didn't accept it but instead agreed. Was he _trying_ to piss me off? "Although I'd appreciate it if he was the one to say it."

"He tends not to do those kinds of things."

"Kissing guys or apologizing?" he glared at me.

"…Both."

"You should be fucking grateful that I didn't go further," I snickered, stepping forward. His glare wavered and I took that to my advantage. "Or would you have liked it—"

Alexia slapped a hand over my mouth. "Grimmjow!" I shrugged and swatted her hand away.

"Just a friendly suggestion."

"A friendly suggestion?!" he exclaimed, calling the attention of a few people around us. I sighed and motioned with my eyes to the people now watching, hopefully thinking that he'd get the message. "I'm not a slut!"

"Hey, can you shut up?" I asked in a polite-ish way. "You're calling unnecessary attention."

He stepped closer and lowered his voice. "I can't believe someone as disgusting as you is Alexia's sister."

That lit a fuse. "Excuse me?"

"Both of you need to calm down…!" Alexia stepped in between us and spread out, causing us to put more space in between us.

"Well, he's acting like I stole his first kiss from him or something!" I defended myself. To my surprise, he stiffened at my words and blushed again. "Wait, don't tell me…" All of a sudden I felt like a giant douche. _No, no, no, you're supposed to hate him for kneeing you in the stomach, Grimmjow!_

"D-don't look at me like you're trying to pity me!" he said, pointing a finger at me.

"I-i'm so—"

I was not about to apologize. No way. "Listen, kid, you better shut your mouth before the people around you start asking questions." He bit his lip but didn't say anything else. Alexia lowered her voice and said something to André that he probably didn't like, judging from his facial expression. I only caught small bits of the conversation.

"Just for…"

"…with him here, not…"

"…only for the next…"

"…Fine," he sighed in surrender and averted his gaze from mine.

Alexia turned and stared me dead in the eyes. "Grimmjow…Ulquiorra and I are going to other places. You're going to accompany André, alright?"

_ …What?_

"No, I'm not," I laughed nervously; but Andre was already packed up and ready to go—and looking at me as if I expected to follow.

"It's an agreement Alexia and I made," he explained coldly. "She doesn't feel like wasting time with you and wants to be with Ulquiorra. Meanwhile I'll get you to apologize and make sure you don't get lost. All of us are going to meet here again at the end of the day and I'll never have to see your face again."

_This bastard…_

"So you're basically getting rid of me to be alone with your prince?" I smirked. She glared at me and opened her mouth to say something but closed it at the last second, shaking her head and walking off. Ulquiorra's wrist was taken by her hand and she pulled him along as he glanced back at us one more time.

I found myself in possibly the most awkward atmosphere I'd never encountered. "So…uh…you wanna go somewhere or something?"

"More like can I take you somewhere," he walked away, shouldering his guitar and putting on a grey beanie as he walked down the street. I again fought to keep up with his fast pace. We finally came to a secluded place with more natural features; there were families playing in a park, children running around, couples holding each other and other people doing things like painting or playing their instruments like André had. I looked at the guitar in the case on his shoulder and grabbed the top of it.

"Kid," I called out and he snapped around, my hand smacked away by the guitar's case.

"I'm not a kid," he corrected. "What do you want?"

"I just wanted to say so—"

Again?! The fuck was wrong with me?

"What I meant," I started, "was that I wanted to see your guitar." He stared at me skeptically and I rolled my eyes. "I'm not going to smash it against a tree, just let me see it."

"Why?" We came to an asphalt path and he sat on a bench, expecting my answer. I sighed and got closer to him, making him immediately lose his cool and hurriedly take the guitar off of his back and into his lap, unzipping the case with shaky hands.

The guitar was completely black around the edges of it, fading to a burning orange in the center. Carefully taking it in my arms, I set it on my knees and played each perfectly tuned string. Somewhere in the back of my head I could recall playing the guitar when I had been alive, but not doing good at it. I saw André staring out of the corner of his eyes while trying to trick me by having his head facing the front.

"Possessive?" I stated more than asked in a tone I wasn't quite comfortable with. I had to keep that angry tone in my voice but it wasn't as long-lasting as it usually was. Crap.

He nodded. "I got that when I was younger. I've had it for a long time, I don't even know how long." He held his hand out and even though I knew he wanted his guitar back I instead put my hand in his, seeing him blush and smack my hand away. "I want the guitar back, not you."

"I'm hurt," I handed him the guitar and he slid a hand over it before putting the guitar case on the floor and beginning to play. Opening his mouth, he was about to start singing but glared at me.

"You better not do anything to make me fuck up."

"Course I won't." I traced an X on the area over my heart. This only made him narrow his eyes.

"…"

He started to sing slowly at first, catching the attention of only a few people. Then, as his voice grew in volume, more people stopped what they were doing to listen. Parents gave their children money and the kids ran up to André and dropped money in his guitar case. Sighing, I listened to the song he was performing. Even though I'd gotten the language thing sorted out, the words were still foreign to me.

As soon as the song ended nearly everyone gave him an applause and he bowed his head in thanks. Lifting his head a little, he looked over at me.

"Did you like that?"

"What?" I said.

"Nothing," his facial expression turned nonchalant once again and he picked up his things. "Come on, I don't wanna have to look for you when you get lost."

"I'm not getting lost," I snapped back at him.

"Because you've definitely been here long enough to know where to go next, right?"

A cross-popping vein appeared on my forehead. No way was I going to apologize.

He led me to a more populated place full of small market shops. Tons of vendors called out, verbally advertising what they were selling. Necklaces, scarves, glasses, bracelets, watches, headbands, those weren't even a fraction of what there was. André went up to a vendor's booth and pointed to a couple of jewelry items.

"The kid wears jewelry?" I went up behind him and smirked, then got a karate chop to the head.

"Some of it isn't for me," he answered curtly and turned his back to me. "None of it's for you, I can assure you that. I wanted to get Alexia something. It's been quite a while since…"

"Since you saw her?" I finished for him. He nodded but didn't seem so sure about it.

The vendor came back with the things André had purchased in a small plastic bag. "Twenty-three euro, please," the elderly vendor said. I looked around at her surroundings; there were two children probably no older than ten behind her, skipping rocks on the river. They both had scraggly bodies with dirty clothes and their facial expressions were in a bit of pain, but the brightness on their faces outshone it. All of them looked like they were in desperate need of help. The lady caught me looking at them and smiled at me, which made me feel like I was in an awkward position. "Those are my grandchildren. My daughter—their mother—left me with them the moment they were born. I believe they are better off with me."

Kouki fished around in his pockets and furrowed his eyebrows, then turned to me. "What happened to those 200 euros that you gave me?"

"You left them back on the table," I deadpanned, crossing my arms. "Still not regretting taking them?"

He sighed and slid his guitar case off his shoulders, handing me his guitar while he took out change from his last performance and combined it with what he had in his pockets. His own eyes widened and I guessed he'd gathered a lot of money. Smiling warmly, he handed everything to the woman and her eyes shone.

"That's about four hundred," he said, making me cease to breathe for a moment.

"F-four…hundred…," she began to shake her head and hand back the money but André folded her fingers around it.

"I don't need it."

The two kids gathered around her and opened their mouths in perfect O's at the amount in their grandmother's hands. This seemed too good to be true. Didn't he need that money? Why was he trying to get money in the first place? He nodded to the elderly woman and went on his way, leaving me in shock for a second.

So one second he's a total ass and now he's a compassionate philanthropist?!

"Hey, what was that all about?" I ran up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Didn't you need that money?"

He looked at me like I was the insane one here. "Of course not. I don't perform because I need the money or anything like that. Besides, she needed it more than I did. Her and the kids." His face turned a little serious and I got scared.

"Don't you dare go philosophical on me," I warned. "You hadn't even gotten kissed before today."

"Don't you dare bring that up!" he yelled, his face reddening again. "I still think you're a pervert, no matter what your motives were!"

"It's not that big a deal," I shrugged.

"It is!"

"And in what way would a kiss be a big deal?" I asked, laughing. "It's not like I felt something for—Gah! You just…love kneeing…my stomach, don't you…?!"

He took his guitar out of my hands and put it back in the case while walking off, leaving me there. "Hurry up before you get lost."

Reluctantly, I followed him down the asphalt road and glared at the people who looked at me like I was crazy, earning a glare from André. As if I gave a shit.

Soon after, André hesitated in his steps and turned around. "I don't know what kinds of places you like. Where do you want to go?"

"Well, where are we?"

I looked around. The first thing that catch anyone's attention was the huge church. Its design was gothic and I concluded that it was an old building, because of the way it was built. No one really made these kinds of churches anymore.

"This is the Notre Dame cathedral," he answered. "It's a church that was built in the twelfth century, so it's been about nine hundred years since it was built. Do you find this place interesting or something?"

"Old places don't appeal to me," I said. "Every time I see something old I think it's going to collapse any second; I'd rather just stay away until I'm sure it's not going to."

He shook his head and readjusted his guitar. "I guess we'll just walk around until we find a place, huh?"

A few minutes later, we were both walking down the street, next to each other. In silence. It was starting to irk me, and you could see it in my face.

"Hey," I called out to him but he kept walking. "Kid."

"Don't call me kid, I'm sixteen."

"Are we there yet?"

He raised an eyebrow. "No."

"…How 'bout now?"

"…"

"No? What about—"

"I don't want to cause you to have brain trauma. Please shut the hell up," he said, walking faster and forcing me to do so, as well. He mumbled to himself and I caught a few words. "…immature bastard…never should've…"

"Hey, how did you meet Alexia?" I asked him, the idea barely crossing my mind. He sent me a surprised look. "What?"

"You said something rational…"

My fist narrowly missed his head. "It just crossed my mind, alright? Answer me."

"I'd appreciate it if you could say that in a way that would at least hint that you're asking me to answer."

"That's not happening anytime soon."

He sighed and sat down on the neatly trimmed grass of yet another park. I'd lost count of how many there were a long time ago. He unzipped a different pocket on his guitar case and took out a sandwich in a Tupperware square. It had tons of mayonnaise on it, for some unknown reason. When he took a bite out of it the mayo almost spilled out from the sides.

"What's with you and mayonnaise?"

He chewed his sandwich for a few moments and then turned to me. "I like mayonnaise."

"…Yeah, I can see that."

"Well then, don't ask," he grumbled and took another giant bite out of his sandwich. Leaning back on my elbows, I stared up at the blue sky dotted with clouds. _There's something I haven't seen in a while_…In a few more minutes André had finished most of his sandwich and cleaned up. The fact that I hadn't even eaten breakfast hit me hard as my stomach gave an audible growl that he immediately heard. Turning to face me, he smirked. "No wonder you're such a douche, you haven't eaten. If I treat you to a meal will you stop being an ass?"

My eye twitched in anger and I was about to go off on him—until I got an idea. "Sure. Where are you planning to go?"

"Look at that, you're already starting to act properly. There are plenty of breakfast places anywhere you go, and to me they're equally as good. Is there anything in particular that you like?"

"Seafood."

"Hm…," he stopped in his tracks and thought. "I'm pretty sure there's a place fifteen minutes away."

We again walked in silence, but I watched him out of the corner of my eye, trying to figure him out. All I knew was that he was Alexia's friend and…uh…he hadn't had his first kiss until today. That was basically it.

"I mrht hr whern—cough!" he ended up choking on his sandwich and the next few minutes were full of him regaining his composure, not to mention his breath. "I met her when she was younger, maybe…I don't know. She'd come here with her aunt, that's all I know for sure. We get along well and our differences sort of balance out and make everything stable. Of course, she had to go back to the U.S. after a few months; but she almost wanted to stay with me."

"Did she like you?" I asked out of pure curiosity, and the fact that I couldn't imagine her drooling over anyone else but Ulquiorra.

"No…," he had the most legitimate poker face I'd ever seen on someone. "Never. And I didn't really…well, I don't even really…"

"Like girls?"

"It's not that, just—"

"I'm taking that a yes," I remarked, taking his sandwich and eating the rest of it. "You completely forgot about taking me somewhere so I could eat, you know. Instead you nearly died, choking on a sandwich."

"Hey!" he grabbed the remainder of his sandwich and chomped it down in one bite. "No stealing my food. My cooking is reserved for me."

"I don't think making a sandwich is cooking…"

"Whatever…"

He got up, dusting the crumbs off of his pants and shouldering his guitar. I got up as well and followed him.

"Is there a certain place that you want to go to?" For once, there was some softness in his voice directed towards me. It was comforting, since I wasn't being humiliated by him (verbally). Karma had to have its way, too, I guess. I shook my head and he sighed. "I wish we could take a bus or something…oh well."

"What's that place?" I asked, pointing to a building with more people around it. The building looked a bit old, like a lot of the houses and everything here, really.

"That's Louvre," André said curtly.

"And that is…"

"An art museum. It used to be a fortress…or a palace…then after the French Revolution it was made into a museum. There's different artifacts from history and I think most people know this place because the Mona Lisa is there."

"Somebody's stocked up on their history," I smirked.

"It's a bit shocking that you don't know what this place is," he argued. "Somebody's ignorant."

"Somebody's being an ass."

"Don't talk to yourself…"

His words were like Alexia's, from a long time ago. I could see how they could get along with each other well; they just sort of clicked. "You sure you guys never considered…?"

He shook his head. "I asked her if she liked me like that one time. Shunned me for a week. It was a weird reaction, but I got the message."

I laughed at her actions. "Yeah, she can be weird at times. It's happening more often lately."

He led me to the museum's patio and sat down, watching the people around him. There were tons of people dressed up as ancient Romans, Egyptian pharaohs and princesses, and bloodthirsty Spartans, taking pictures with the tourists. Out of the corner of my eyes, a small girl dressed as an Egyptian princess sat on an Babylonian couch and had a small Egyptian mau in her arms. I was immediately drawn to it.

"Do you like cats, too?" André asked. "I can see how you're related to Alexia now."

I was already leaving him behind and going to the cat, awkwardly waving to the girl and asking her if I could hold the cat. She, as professionally as an actor, smiled with bright white teeth and held the gray cat out to me. As soon as I had it in my arms it started to purr, rubbing its head on my chest. It opened its eyes a while and saw that they were a startling yellow.

"Ow!"

Why did cats love shredding my face after they cuddled up against me like I was their mother?

"I'm sorry," the girl got off of the couch with grace and took the cat out of my arms while I rubbed my cheek. She scolded the cat, pointing a finger at it and telling it not to hurt the tourist.

"It's his fault," André appeared behind me.

"It's not!" I defended.

"Can't you learn to resist?"

"…No."

Shaking his head, he said another apology to the girl and waved me over as he walked off.

"Where are we going now?" I asked him, jogging to catch up with his steps. He seemed to be getting farther and farther away. "Kid!"

He turned around, finally. "I'm not a—"

That's all I heard before I was trampled over.

"What the hell?!" I shouted.

"G-grimmjow?!" _Alexia?_

I sat up and clutched my head. People were probably staring. At my hair, of course. "First of all, why are you here. Second of all…watch where you're fucking going!"

"Well, sorry!" she crossed her arms. I noticed an intricately woven shawl around her shoulders. She pointed over her shoulder. "I was almost forced to dress up as an Egyptian back in there!"

Imagining her with kohl at the corner of her eyes, her hair braided and wearing flowing white robes made me give a laugh. "You'd be the craziest Egyptian around." I received a bonk on the head.

"I hope Ulquiorra made it out of there…," she said, biting her lip and fiddling with a piece of her hair. "I feel horrible for just leaving him…"

"I am fine," he suddenly appeared behind Alexia and all of us jolted, Alexia nearly jumping on me koala-style.

"D-don't just appear so suddenly!"

"The people here are very artistic and…insistent."

I took a good look at him. There was something different about him (besides the obvious differences the marioneta gave him). His hair? His mouth that was finally the same color on the top and bottom lip? His eyes?

His eyes…

"W-WHAT THE HELL IS ON YOUR EYES!" I bursted out in laughter, surprising everyone around me. There was black makeup around his eyes and eyebrows, like the kohl around the Egyptians' eyes. "D-did you try to give yourself a makeover!?"

"Calm yourself, Jeagerjaques," Ulquiorra, for once, made it clear that he was glaring. "As I have just said, the people here are a bit too enthusiastic."

Alexia was covering her mouth with a hand, silently laughing with tears at the corner of her eyes. When he turned towards her she blushed a little and tried to clear her throat. "I-i'm sorry I left you there…"

"Do not apologize, you were only trying to save yourself," he said it so bluntly that we all calmed down. André was the only one who'd been able reign in his laughter after a few seconds and was now shaking his head at us. I saw something over his shoulder and my eyes widened.

"What is it?" Alexia asked, looking in the direction I was. "Did you see something weird or…"

"Ulquiorra, I think I found your long lost cousins."

"What?" he stepped in front of us and kept walking. "There is not one human remotely similar in appearance to me here."

I smirked and walked towards the people I'd seen, eventually making everyone follow me. A crowd of people were around them but they eventually moved on, giving us a view. There, performing in front of us were…

Mimes.

"They really do look like you, don't they?" I asked, snickering. "Look, he has your expression…so does he…would you look at that, he does too! They're all your relatives, Schiffer!"

"Looks like you're pissing him off…," André murmured next to me.

"Nah, that's just how he looks all the time."

"Oh. Ok."

"We need to get going," Alexia suddenly said. "It's late. We haven't taken this long before…"

"You've gone here before?" André asked her. "Why didn't you look for me?"

Crap. The situation was going to go downhill from here.

"Well…I was visiting other places, too…"

"What about your aunt? How's she doing?"

She bit her lip. "Er, she's fine…"

I thought quickly and grabbed his wrist, pulling him away. Probably remembering what had happened the last time I'd done something like this, he struggled against me but I still had an iron grip. Looking up, I could see that it was nearly dark outside. Time had passed so quickly and I hadn't even realized it.

"D-don't you dare!" he said harshly. "I swear I'll bite your tongue off completely if you even—"

"Stupid, I didn't do that because I liked it," I replied. We were a good distance away from Alexia and a pissed-off Ulquiorra now, which was good for two reasons: Alexia's running out of excuses and my time to…as much as I didn't want to…"I want to apologize."

His eyes widened and he looked at me skeptically. "Oh, really?"

"I'm serious," I snapped. "I'm sorry, alright? I didn't kiss you for the satisfaction of it or anything, I just needed to."

Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair and let if fall over his left eye. "You need to learn to apologize better."

"It's the best I could do, okay?"

"Here, give this to her, will you?" he unzipped a pocket of his guitar case and took out a small bracelet made with emerald stones and black leather. "She wanted this a long time ago but I never got a chance to give it to her."

I inspected the jewelry, then turned and started to walk away. So she liked green even then…"Will do."

"Hey," he called out to me as I turned around in my tracks. "Will Alexia come back to visit sometime?"

His voice sounded a little desperate, like he was alone here. _Maybe he is_, I realized. _He's been gone the whole day and no one's looked for him. He makes food for himself. Was he the only one looking out for himself? I didn't want to lie, but he needed some words of comfort, I guess._

"We'll see when we can come back," I assured him, deciding not to put a hand on his shoulder. "It was nice to meet you, André."

"I guess…"

"That's a nice way to say goodbye."

He ignored me and waved to Alexia from a distance, which irked me but didn't give me an urge to get him back for it. His eyes flickered over to me and held my gaze for a few moments and then he gave a small nod, turning his back and leaving. He looked over his shoulder once. Twice. Thrice. Then didn't look back.

I clutched the bracelet in my hand and went back to Alexia, giving it to her. "He bought it for you. Wants you to come back sometime."

Her eyebrows furrowed as her hand closed around the bracelet, pondering whether to put it on or not. Looking around me, I saw how dark it was getting and told her that we had to leave. She solemnly nodded and readjusted the shawl around her shoulders, involuntarily shivering from the cold breeze that had picked up as soon as the sun had set. I led the way and she stayed close to Ulquiorra's side as I found a remote spot to call Szayel and open a garganta for us.

The trip through the garganta was so quiet that I was looking behind me every few seconds to make sure both of them were still there.

"Goodnight," I heard Ulquiorra murmur to Alexia. He immediately got out of his marioneta and I nearly started laughing my ass off again once I got another glimpse of his faux body's face.

"Sleep well," she said back, reaching out to him but hesitating and stiffening at the last second and turning, silently walking down the hall.

"What's that all about?" I turned to Ulquiorra. He was already gone, leaving me to follow Alexia instead. She didn't notice me trailing behind her until I separated from my marioneta and sonidoed over to her, sticking my foot in the door to prevent her from closing it; she jolted and looked up, her eyes red.

"Grimmjow…," she opened the door little by little and I made me way in.

"Are you okay?" I asked, lounging on her couch as usual.

"Mhmm," she rubbed her eyes and fell onto the bed. "But for some reason…"

"Was it Ulquiorra?"

"What?"

"You look like you've been crying for hours. Did he do something?"

Her facial expression turned serious in a no-kidding way. "I get allergies with all the pollen and it's really bad sometimes. Today was one of those days."

Well, that was anti-climatic.

"What did you think of A—_achoo_!"

"I'm not sure if there's supposed to be bias among sneezing…"

"You know that's not what I meant," she muttered, trying her best not to touch her eyes. "I was going to say André. What did you think of him?"

"Did he ever tell you anything about seeing spirits?" I asked, remembering how high his spiritual power was at when I'd first seen him. She shook her head and sneezed again. "He has a lot of spiritual power, it's sort of ridiculous. I asked him if you'd ever liked him as more than a friend."

I'd completely forgotten about the dagger I'd decided to give to her yesterday, now whizzing past my head.

"Don't say anything about that," she threatened. "I get so angry when people assume that…"

"I think I got the message when the knife hit the wall."

"But seriously, as a human, what did you think of him?"

"Eh."

"What do you mean, 'eh'?"

"He's alright, I guess. He has really weird mood swings, collects money for no reason, has an unhealthy obsession with mayonnaise, knows a lot of history on France and hasn't been kissed or kissed someone until today. I think he's a weird kid."

She shook her head in disbelief. "Well, when you say like that it's easy to believe, but it's not as weird…as…you'd think." A yawn took over at the end of her sentence and I scoffed at her.

"And what exactly did you do with your prince?"

At that point she was laying on her side with her back to me, so it was obvious when she stiffened. "Well…we basically just walked around and…it wasn't eventful, really. Besides the thing that happened at the arm museum."

"What's bothering you?"

"…It's personal."

"Something you can't tell your bro about?" I said with a mock tone of hurt. "I thought you trusted me."

She remained silent.

"You know, I think this trip helped me, though," I changed the subject. "Didn't I tell you that something was missing? That feeling went away after a while, when I was in the human world. Maybe that was the remedy."

She nodded. "That's good."

Her behavior was way too sudden and weird for me. It was like something had happened between the time we parted and the time we came back, but I couldn't think of something so bad that she didn't want to tell me. She pretty much fell asleep on me in the next two minutes, leaving me there to think.

I'd felt like the 'Sexta' when I was in France. Now that I was back in my usual form I was the ex-espada who'd gone and killed off all of his fracciòn. It wasn't as if I cared for them—they just followed me like subjects did their king. That strange feeling from before was gone, though. I didn't feel like there was that puzzle piece missing. But…I looked at where my left arm would've been. Maybe that was the puzzle piece.

_It's gone again._

_ And it probably isn't coming back._

**•O•O•O•O•O•O•O•O•O•O•O•O**

Me: O_O This is the longest chapter I have ever written…

Alexia: O/~/O Ulquiorra did what!?

Ulquiorra: I have cousins?

Grimmjow: I kissed a guy?!

André: I _let myself_ be kissed by a guy!?

Unbr0ken: Yep :D

(Everyone except Unbr0ken glares at me)

Me: (Panics) O-ok, but it's not like you didn't like it, Alexia!

Alexia: -/./- Shut it.

Me: Ulquiorra, you don't have cousins, that was just Grimmjow being a douche ._.

Ulquiorra: T_T

Grimmjow: I was being a what!?

Me: And Grimmjow, it's not like you wanted to do that, you _did_ say it was necessary, right? ^_^'

Grimmjow: -_- So what if I did?

André: What about me?!

Unbr0ken and I: (Stare at André in silence)

André: …

Unbr0ken: (Puts a hand on my shoulder and I do the same) We have our reasons :D

André: HEY!

Me: See you next week!

André: Don't leave me hanging!

Unbr0ken: (Waves enthusiastically) Bye!

André: Guys!

Song of the week: Still Alive by Big Bang (Korea)


	28. Trust me, maybe?

Me: (Sees Unbr0ken glued to his computer screen) Why're you so concentrated on your laptop?

Unbr0ken: …

Me: Jay!

Unbr0ken: (Blinks a few times and finally realizes I'm here) Oh. Hi, Arekushia :D

Alexia: (Looks at computer screen) Who's this?

Unbr0ken: That's Kiba Inuzuka, a character in Naruto ~smiles brightly~ He's absolutely my favorite.

Grimmjow: Your favorite what?

Unbr0ken: My favorite anime character ;)

Me: B-but, wasn't it (Holds up a picture of Toshiro Hitsugaya) and then it was (points to Grimmjow)? I thought that the next one would've been another Bleach character…

Alexia: Grimmjow is no one's favorite anymore XDDDD

Grimmjow: H-huh!? I know I'm someone's favorite…

Me: (Raises eyebrow)

Grimmjow: I just haven't met them yet -_-

Alexia: (Facepalms) Face the facts, Grimmjow.

Grimmjow: -_- No.

Unbr0ken: I love Kiba! Look at him! (Grabs Grimmjow by the shoulders and shows him images of Kiba)

Grimmjow: He's not even as good-looking as me!

Unbr0ken: (Hits Grimmjow over the head) He's twice as good-looking as you!

Grimmjow: O_O

**SEPTEMBER TWENTY-FIFTH, PART ONE**

"Are you sure you want to go?"

"For the last time, Grimmjow, yes! I have to."

"You look like a thirty-year-old elf that's been deprived of sleep. You shouldn't go."

"I'm not going to change my mind—how many times do I have to tell you that I have to go?"

I sighed, combing my hair out. So what if I'd been sleep deprived these past few days? It didn't mean I wasn't going to Chicago. It was an obligation to do so, now.

"At least eat something," Grimmjow waved a hand at the cart by the door with specially-made Hueco Mundo cuisine. Yum. "Or drink water."

I gave in to at least one of his requests and sipped a glass of water. Suddenly and before I knew it, I'd chugged down the entire glass.

"See? What have you been doing to yourself lately?" Grimmjow asked in disbelief.

"Training, thinking, training some more, intensely pondering, waiting for the next time I can go to the World of the Living, wearing myself out, having nightmares, a—"

"Alright, alright," he snapped. "So…"

"…"

"Why are you going to the human world, then?"

"Again with this, Grimmjow?" I said exasperatedly. "I already told you and I'm not going to repeat myself."

_At least my marioneta hides the fact that I look like a vampire that hasn't drunk blood in twenty years_, I sarcastically thought to myself. Ever since coming back from France, nothing good had happened. Everything suddenly seemed intent on ruining my life. They were off to a good start.

"It's getting a little too late for you to go, anyways," he continued. "Why not just save it for another day?"

"There won't _be_ another day."

"Alexia…"

"Grimmjow," I started firmly, putting a hand on my hip and the other over my forehead. "I'm not going to tell you again. I promised him that I'd show him how I knew about you guys, and I'm not planning on backing out."

"Whatever, Alexia, whatever," he held up his hands in surrender. "Just don't push yourself too much or you'll end up hurting yourself."

"I know, Grimmjow," I answered, giving him a wave as I left my room. "I'll see you later."

"Yeah."

Ironically, I was finally starting to fall asleep today, when I was going to Chicago. I yawned loudly and didn't pay attention to the way the door opened on their own or how someone was behind be until they cleared their throat. I groggily turned around to see Szayel, back to normal and looking alive.

"You seem extremely tired," he noted. "Have you been getting proper sleep?"

"You could say I've been closing my eyes but…no, not really."

"When was the last time you slept, Alexia?"

"…Four days ago?" I already knew what he was going to say before he actually said it.

"You should stay here and get some rest. I have some sleeping pills you can take."

As I thought. "No thanks. Whenever I actually start trying to sleep, that's when it goes away. I'd rather be tired and doing something than not tired and doing nothing."

He gave me a concerned look and I shrugged in response. Sighing, he told me, "Ulquiorra isn't here yet."

"He isn't…?" It was partially relieving to hear that but at the same time I was curious. Considering why we were going to the World of the Living, shouldn't he have gotten here earlier?

"His schedule's been packed nearly all times of the day recently with missions from Aizen. I don't get why he pushes the whole work load on him and doesn't distribute it among all the espada."

"He trusts me with his work," Ulquiorra appeared out of nowhere but I was too tired to be startled.

"Glad to see that you decided to come," Szayel greeted him. Ulquiorra's gaze shifted over to me and I felt my cheeks redden from the memories of going to France.

_**"I cannot understand what people are saying," he casually stated, walking behind me. Szayel had told me something else before we left. How we could understand and speak a language we didn't know, such as French. The idea disturbed me…well, more like it embarrassed me…**_

_**"There's a way to know what they're saying," I reluctantly spoke up. It had to be done; otherwise we'd all be at a loss and not know what to do. I couldn't understand a word, either. "You…you have to bite your tongue."**_

_**"…I still do not understand anyone," he said after a few seconds; he'd probably tried already and failed. This was the part I didn't want to come to. "Are you sure this is the method?"**_

_**"I-if you can't then…your tongue still has to be bitten, but it has to be by another p-person." I glanced behind me and saw Ulquiorra intently staring at me. Crap.**_

_**"So I must bite your tongue and you must do the same?"**_

_**"…Yeah…"**_

_**He took my wrist and led me to a more secluded area, immediately making me struggle in his grip.**_

_**"W-wait!"**_

_**"What is it, Alexia?" he asked. "We need to—"**_

_**"Why don't you just kiss someone else?!" I nervously laughed and tried to wrench myself out of his grasp but he still had his strength (even though his marioneta should have lessened it).**_

_**"You have told me before not to be an inconvenience to others, and I am simply following your instructions. The only person who would not be inconvenienced by my following actions is you."**_

_**He never ceased to ignore how he sounded as he said that.**_

_**His face neared mine and I stiffened. "You tongue," said Ulquiorra in a nonchalant tone of voice. Damn him. Gulping, I reluctantly opened my mouth little by little and stuck my tongue out a bit, immediately feeling his teeth on my tongue. I blushed profusely when his tongue briefly brushed over mine. I shivered involuntarily and bit his tongue accidentally before he'd even took account of it. Covering my mouth, I looked away with what I was sure was a huge blush on my face.**_

_**"I do not see what is so important about this, Alexia," he remarked.**_

_**"…" I held my tongue. **_**What wasn't important about that?!**

"Alexia."

Szayel was holding out the globe to me, which I hastily took, and cleared my throat as I pinpointed Chicago and touched the garganta. It was a boring routine now, so much that I almost wanted to ask him if there was another way to get to our destination. The first thing I saw when the landscape changed was the trees in the area by Lake Michigan. There were more than twenty million people in Chicago; appearing in a less populated place would cause the least amount of confusion.

"She's incredibly tired," I heard Szayel say to Ulquiorra. "Can you please ask her to stay this week? I think you're probably the only one who can make her heed our words."

I half expected to Ulquiorra to actually ask. "It is her decision. She will suffer the consequences as it seems fit. Let us go," Ulquiorra looked over at me and I snapped out of my drowsy thoughts, leaving the globe on the table and giving a small wave to Szayel before stepping through the garganta with Ulquiorra.

If I had a top three for the places in the world, Chicago would probably be one of them. There were so many different people here and the environment appealed to me immensely.

"Another city?" Ulquiorra put his hands in his pockets and watched the traffic ahead. I nodded and sat down on the grass.

"I bet you're getting sick of them," I stated with a yawn.

"Not necessarily, but you seem to only like places such as these."

"I guess so…"

"…Alexia."

I blinked a few times. I was about to fall asleep. _Damn it!_

"Alexia."

His voice was right next to my ear this time, causing me to jolt. "Y-yeah?" He held out his hand and I took it, hoisting myself up and bumping into him. For a moment I stayed there, leaning against him and breathing in his scent. It was almost like an unspoken agreement; I'd reasoned that I could do things like this (even if he didn't respond) and he'd let me, with the exception that I didn't go too far. As if I even had the guts to do that.

"That is enough, woman," he said, stepping away. I nodded and looked away. He wasn't calling me 'woman' much often anymore, which I found nice, but when he did I knew that I was either doing something inappropriate, by his standards, or just being immature. Both of which I didn't usually do. "Where are you going to take us?"

"Uh…," I caught sight of a Starbucks in the distance and pointed to it. "I bet you've never drank any type of caffeinated drink."

I hailed a taxi and we got off in a slightly more populated area, Millenium and Grant Park across the busy streets. As usual, the waft of coffee and confections attacked my sense of smell the moment I entered. Nearly all the seats were full, but I managed to find us two seats in the far corner of the room.

"Do you like the smell?" I asked. He nodded halfheartedly. He was really out of it today, that I could tell. I wonder if he had been having trouble sleeping as well. "All the food is listed over there, choose something."

His eyes skimmed over the menu suspended over the register. "…I am not familiar with any of these selections."

"Ulquiorra, do you like chocolate?" I asked, resting my chin in the palm of my hand.

"…Chocolate?"

I nearly died. "You have to know what chocolate is, Ulqui-cielago," I said in a scolding tone. "How could you not?"

"Whatever it is, it is not in Hueco Mundo, hence my generally limited knowledge on human foods and culture. What is chocolate?"

I sighed and thought about it for a second, trying to come up with an answer that would satisfy him. "Chocolate is made from the beans of a cacao tree. Depending on what kind of chocolate it is, there are three main flavors to them. Dark is—to some people, bitter—but in my opinion it tastes really good, a tough sort of sweetness to it. Milk chocolate is probably the most popular kind and is always sweet, and white chocolate is creamy and sweet as well, even though it has it's own unique flavor. If you want we can try all three."

Getting up, I went to the register and read all the choices on the menu while waiting in line, there were a lot of things that I hadn't heard of before; they must've added a lot of new drinks and foods while I was gone. Before I knew it, it was my turn at the register. I went ahead and ordered a Java Chip Frappuccino for Ulquiorra and got a Hazelnut Macchiato for myself. His cold beverage in my left hand and my warm one in my right, I set them down carefully at the table and sat down.

"This is yours," I handed him the plastic cup and a bendable straw. He looked at it skeptically and I rolled my eyes. "Here, drink from the straw."

"Is this normal?" he asked.

"The straw? Yeah. It's just another method of drinking from a cup."

I took a sip of my drink and reveled in the taste of it; nothing beat the great drinks Starbucks had to offer. After taking another sip, I sighed contentedly and set the cup down. Ulquiorra, as I looked up, averted his gaze and looked out the ceiling-to-floor windows.

"Uh…have you tried your drink yet?" I asked. His eyes traveled to my own drink as he shook his head. "Do you want to try mine…?"

Again, he shook his head. "You seem to enjoy your beverage immensely."

"It tastes really good," I smiled. "Are you planning on at least trying yours?"

He stared at his beverage; then his hand cautiously reached for the cup while the other held the straw up to his lips. He hesitated for a moment before sucking on the straw and trying the drink. Waiting in anticipation of any clues that gave away his reaction, I fiddled with my hands and tapped my feet.

"This is chocolate?" he said, a hint of incredulity in his voice. I laughed and murmured a yes, asking him if he liked it. His gaze lingered on mine before he looked away and continued to sip his drink. "It has a sweet taste…"

"Do you like sweet things?" I smiled at him. He thought about it for a few seconds before slowly nodding. "I'll be right back."

Getting up from the table, I looked for a particular snack that I thought he would like: dark chocolate-covered graham crackers. I thought to packets of two each and handed Ulquiorra one while I took he other, carefully ripping the plastic off. Taking a bite out of one, I gave a happy hum of approval and continued to munch on the cracker. It wasn't until a few moments later that I looked up at Ulquiorra again—but the first thing I noticed when I did make contact with him was the empty plastic container and crumbs of the graham crackers left over.

"…Ulquiorra?"

He blinked a few times and met my eyes. They seemed energized, for once, although it was a strange look on him. "Yes?"

"I think you like chocolate a little too much," I laughed out loud and hurriedly quieted down when two girls turned to look at me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw their eyes shift to Ulquiorra and they whispered to each other, sparking a feeling in me that I didn't like.

"What is wrong, Alexia?" he began to turn around but I quickly dismissed the matter, saying I'd gotten lost in thought. I noticed something on the corner of his mouth.

"Ulquiorra, you have something here," I pointed to my cheek to locate the spot but he just stared at me blankly. "Look, there's a piece of cracker on the side of your mouth that you haven't cleaned off right here…no, the other side, a little to the right, no…"

Shaking my head, I pointed my finger at the spot and his fingers brushed over it but didn't clean it off. Reaching over, I touched the spot on his cheek—his hand grasped mine and he looked in my eyes. "What are you doing?"

"I'm cleaning off that crumb on your cheek," I tried to pull away but he only pulled my hand away and looked at the small chunk of chocolate, then put my finger to his lips and licked it off, making me stiffen and blush. He asked me what was wrong. "Nothing…c-can you let go of me now…?" I asked in a hushed whisper, averting my gaze from his. He slowly let go and I clutched my hand to my chest, taking deep breaths. "Thank you."

"For eating the crumb off of your finger?"

"F-for letting my hand go!"

We stayed for a little while longer. I tuned in the weather forecast being displayed on the small TV in the top corner of the café.

_"The winter weather has a head start today, with temperatures going up to the mid-thirties in the afternoon and falling into the high twenties overnight. We have wind gusts of up to thirty miles per hour today, and we might even see some snow in the late afternoon to midnight. It seems that this winter is going to be quite a long one…"_

"I should get a coat," I murmured to no one in particular. Ulquiorra overheard me.

"There are many stores in the area, if you need to purchase one."

"Yeah," I sighed and got up from the table, shouldering the small purse on my right shoulder. Once again, I felt someone's stare on me and turned my head a little to find the same two girls looking over at us. I hated when people stared for no apparent reason, especially when they knew you knew they were looking and continued to do so.

Ulquiorra walked past me and towards the door, reminding me of what we were doing. The store. A coat. Right.

A gust of wind greeted us the moment we stepped outside, disheveling my hair into a complete and utter mess. I laughed defeatedly after the wind had calmed down some moments later, and rearranged my hair again. The urge to smack myself was growing ever stronger. I knew how windy it could get in the autumn months of Chicago, yet I had still decided to go with loose hair. I turned and saw the perfect way the wind flapped Ulquiorra's jet black hair. Another urge showed up; one to run my hands through his hair. It was incredibly soft and had absolutely no knots in it, so the feeling of it running through my fingers would be almost magical.

"Is there some abnormal quality of my hair?" his voice called me out of my thoughts. Shaking my head, I caught up with him and stood shoulder-to-shoulder together as we walked down the street. A small, quaint department store was settled between a nail salon and a Czech restaurant, with oil pastel-colored walls that could catch someone's attention from a block away. A tinkle of bells resonated when I opened the door and went in. As if the store was seeking me out instead of me seeking out the store, I saw that every rack was a different style of jackets, coats and other outer garments. They were arranged by color, then size. Of course, I automatically went to the green department (for lack of what else to call it) and looked through them. There were too many to choose from, but not many of them were the exact shade of green that I wanted. There were only three of those.

The first was a button up turtleneck that stopped below the chest area; it had long sleeves. I wasn't too fond of the fact that I'd still feel remotely cold from my mid-torso and down.

The second one was long, probably going down to my knees, and zippered up. It almost looked like a dress of sorts, but the fabric was, to me, uncomfortable.

The third one was made of a silky fabric on the inside and a soft, fuzzed fabric on the outside. It had two large pockets to put my hands in and another one on the area over my heart. The sleeves were long but not too long, and (once I'd put it on) the jacket hugged my body and accentuated my waistline. It was beautiful. And its price wasn't a problem either, not that I had to worry about it.

"Have a good day," the young man at the counter smiled at me and I returned the gesture with a wave, wearing the jacket out the door. It even had a hoodie, so I could at least maintain some of my hair's place.

I recalled a song in my head and started bobbing my head to it, not paying attention to Ulquiorra in front of me, who wasn't walking. Suddenly bumping into him, I mumbled a sorry and he reassured me by saying that it was an accident. Not that it was okay.

We came across an intersection and crossed the street into Millennium park, seeing the famous Bean and the ice skating rink below it. A large outdoor arena was behind it, where the orchestra would practice and put on free performances. Dozens among hundreds of thousands of people were all settled here, and for this time of day it wasn't common to find many people touring the city's recreational sites.

"Ulquiorra…," I got a fun idea that he probably wouldn't want to do.

"What is it?"

"Do you want to go ice skating?"

"What is ice skating?"

I stared at him with wide eyes. "You have to know what ice skating is!" He simply stared back with his usually blank expression. Sighing, I pointed to the small group of people at the ice skating rink, some of them clearly experienced and others barely learning how to. There was always someone laying on the icy floor, either crying or laughing. "I'll teach you how."

"You may be hurt by doing this," he remarked while seeing someone else slip and land on their…ahem…bottom.

"It's impossible not to," I agreed and grabbed his hand, pulling him along to rent skates. "What's your shoe size?"

"What?"

"Nothing," I muttered, sitting him down on a bench and lifting his foot, seeing a 6 1/2 engraved on the bottom of his shoe. I was 7 1/2, so our feet didn't have that big a difference when it came to size. After someone got a pair of skates for each of us, I briefed Ulquiorra on how to put them on but ended up having to tie up his laces for him. As strange as it seemed, it wasn't difficult to balance myself on the steel line of the skates as we walked out, albeit there was a bit of wobbling. Finally, we came to the ice and faced our first problem.

Getting onto the ice.

It was actually hard for me to enter a rink, probably because of the sudden change from solid, firm ground to a smooth, slippery one. Ulquiorra watched as I hung on to the railing for dear life and hastily made my way onto the ice, nearly falling in the process. After I was a bit more stable I held out my hand to Ulquiorra but he instead grabbed the rail and went out onto the rink almost flawlessly.

_Unintentional show off_, I thought bitterly. Just to one-up him, I started skating, my hand hovering over the railing in case of a slip. It'd been a long time since I'd gone ice skating at all, so the feeling was new all over again.

"Ulqui-cielago," I called out to him and looked behind me, seeing him struggle to maintain his footing while pulling himself towards me by the railing. "Come on!"

"I have never done this before," he reminded me. "You should not expect me to be able to do this immediately."

"I know you're a fast learner," I remarked. "It shouldn't take you that hard to learn." I turned around and skated back, holding out a hand to Ulquiorra that he reluctantly took. Pulling him forward, he immediately gripped my hand harder and shuffled his feet awkwardly. "Just pretend you're walking. The only difference is that your feet have to point outwards as you walk, like this, okay?"

I let go of his hand and showed him, one foot sliding in front of the other in and outward rotation. Picking up some speed, I went around the rink and met him again, this time giving him a small push and nearly making him fall.

"Make sure your legs aren't really loose," I urged him. "You should stiffen up a little bit."

After what seemed like forever, he finally let go of the railing. It was like watching a baby's first steps, and the situation was so similar it was uncanny. As I'd thought, he was a fast learner; copying my movements, he moved at a slow but steady pace and kept his hands at his sides to balances himself.

"Don't lean back," I called out to him once I saw him looking over his shoulder. Complying to my words right away, he picked up his pace and didn't pay attention to his feet but where he was going. I skated by his side, onto having to give him advice every few minutes. Now he was skating as fast as I had been before, turning effortlessly and even drifting his skates along the ice when he turned. That was something I'd never been able to do.

"Alexia," his voice called out to mine and I turned to look over my shoulder. All I was was a blur of his black hair before my hand was grabbed and pulled along, nearly making me fall.

"W-what are you…!"

"You are slowing down," he said blatantly. "Humans, they have races, do they not?"

A playful smile made its way on my face. "Is that a challenge, Ulqui-cielago?"

I started off, picking up my pace and pulling on my hoodie, loving the feeling of the wind whipping against me. The moment I turned a corner, I saw Ulquiorra within arm's reach of me, making me go faster and leaning forward.

"Too slow," Ulquiorra's voice was right next to me and I jumped, almost falling but bumping into the railing and then hanging on to it.

"B-bastard!"

I caught my breath, pulling down my hoodie and slowly starting up again. My legs felt sore, which most probably meant I wouldn't be able to walk easily tomorrow. This was strange of Ulquiorra, but at the same time it was nice. _This must be the hyperactive side of him_, I thought with a breathless laugh. _I should give him chocolate more often._

He appeared behind me again but this time I grabbed the back of his white jacket, pulling him back. We both struggled to maintain our balance because of my actions. We both crashed to the frozen floor seconds later.

"Ow," I laughed and tried to get up again but couldn't handle it and started to laugh some more when I saw Ulquiorra's surprised expression at what had happened. "We finally fell."

"That was reckless," he said coldly and grabbed the railing, hoisting himself up. He grabbed my arm and pulled me up as well, our noses nearly touching as he did so. I immediately fidgeted in his grasp and whispered a plead to let me go. After doing so I skated away, wanting to put as much distance between us as possible so he wouldn't see the red on my face. If he asked I could just say it was the cold air, anyways, so it wasn't too much of a big deal.

That was what I wanted to think, at least.

I lost track of my actions while on my thoughts and didn't notice the person until I crashed into them, sending us both sprawling across the ice. Great, now I looked like a giant klutz. "I-i'm sorry…"

"Woah, you seemed really into skating," a guy's voice let out a laugh. I found myself in the arms of a boy in his late teens or early twenties, with sand-ish colored hair and gray eyes with tanned skin. I cleared my throat and retreated from his hold, looking for—

"Alexia," his voice was behind me and I snapped my head around. "You must not be reckless around others so as not to cause them trouble."

"I already apologized," I mumbled, looking down and getting up on my own. Apologizing again for good measure, I could feel Ulquiorra's eyes on me the rest of the time we skated.

"Your face is red. Do you find that man appealing?" he asked suddenly. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"You already knew that I don't see him in that aspect, and that the only person I have thoughts like that for is you." I surprised myself by saying that without stuttering or averting my gaze. Then again, it could've been the fact that I was irked by his question.

"I see."

Sooner or later, we had to leave the rink in order to give others a chance to skate as well. On our way out of the think, a crowd of people were gathered at the entrance, blocking the exit as well.

"What is going on?" asked Ulquiorra. I shrugged and and skated closer to the crowd, hoping to see what was happening. I saw a girl with tears in her eyes while a man was somewhat crouched on the floor (that's what I assumed) and holding out something to her. _Oh!_

"This is so nice," I said.

"Alexia, what is going on?"

"He's proposing to her," I smiled and turned to him. He had a mild expression of confusion on his face which told me he didn't know what that meant at all. "He's basically asking for her permission to be married."

"Is this what you had explained to me weeks ago?" he inquired as the girl practically tackled her new fiancé to the ground. I sweat dropped at her actions.

"Yup."

The crowd applauded the now engaged couple and finally dispersed, granting us access to leave. My feet felt a bit sore as I took off the skates and put on my knee-length boots again.

"It's going to feel a little strange when you put on your shoes again, but it'll eventually go away," I informed him as I stood up. He'd been staring at me the entire time? "Don't tell me you want me to take off your skates?"

"I do not know how to remove them," he defended. Sighing, I crouched down and took his foot, pulling on a lace to make the whole thing unwind. I gave them back to the employee and got Ulquiorra's converse in return.

"I'm trusting you know how to put these on," I raised an eyebrow as I handed him his shoes. "We'll go to the library right after this, if you want."

"This place has features that have interested me," said Ulquiorra as he stood up. "I would like to see them."

"Really?"

My back was turned as I said that, but when I received silence as a response I hastily got my things and closed the locker, giving the lock back to the worker there and turning to find Ulquiorra—

Who wasn't there anymore.

I panicked and ran out, searching among the crowd for a shorter head of black hair. _Great_, I thought. _I lose sight of him for less than a minute and he's gone._

I went up the stairs two at a time, up to the infamous Could Gate, commonly known as the "Bean." Anyone would see right away why it was called that, by its stainless steel, bean-like shape that reflected all of Chicago. A crowd of people were taking pictures either with their family or friends, some of them going under the bean to look up at the strange reflections made by the arch of the sculpture.

"Ulquiorra!" I called out, my call for him lost among the murmurs and talk of others. "Ulquiorra!"

Winding my way through people, I made my way to the balcony to get a better view of the people wandering through. An intersection was up ahead, with plenty of people for me to check off of my list. Minutes after, I was ready to give up but saw someone extremely familiar. Cupping my hands around my mouth, I called out to him in the loudest voice I'd ever used and called the attention of tons of people, including him. He put his hand up in a mild greeting—which also looked like he was motioning for me to stop before I fell over the balcony's railing. I ran down the concrete stairs and sprinted over to him, stopping abruptly when I reached him and bending over to catch my breath.

"You," I breathed out, "Where were…where the hell did you go?!"

"I was looking for you, woman," he said. "I went outside but didn't not see you follow, then entered the room again and did not find you inside and began to search for you."

The next few seconds were just me catching my breath while he stared at me, people passing us without a second glance. Finally looking up again, I grasped his hand and pulled him back up the stairs to the bean, then went under and told him to take a look around.

"What is this?" he said, scoping the area. I laid down on the floor and crossed my legs; in the mirrored reflection it looked like I was floating in the air.

"They used a stainless steel material to make a bean-like structure that would reflect the environment around it. It was made in 2005, sometime around there. Do you like it?"

"…"

"Find it interesting, at least?"

He sat down and laid back, staring at his reflection. All I got from him was a glance my way.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked, looking at the mirrored him. He did the same. "You seem distracted all of a sudden. Did something happen?"

"Alexia," he turned and looked me in the eye this time, making me a bit uncomfortable under his intense gaze. I nodded. "Are you certain that we will find your source in this place?"

My eyes closed a bit and I exhaled. "I'm sure. I don't see why you're so…"

"So what?"

"Nothing. Don't worry, it's not a big deal," I assured him, reaching out and touching the steel surface, creating the illusion that I was touching fingers with the mirrored me. It was almost like the reflected me lived in another nearby world. Or it was just my strange imagination taking over. The latter seemed a lot more believable.

Suddenly, I found Ulquiorra's arm draped over my chest and I immediately stiffened. "W-wha—"

"There is something by your head," he said in his monotone voice, picking up that something and holding it in front of me. A penny. A fucking penny.

Lucky me.

I respectfully pulled his arm away and stood up, soothing my half-disheveled hair and beckoning Ulquiorra to come with me. We left and went on one of the many trains in Chicago in complete silence. I was just nervous, but I could see that he was still thinking about something.

"This is Harold Washington Library," a man's voice said on the intercom, notifying me that it was time to get off. We traveled down the stairs and opened the door's of the library, greeted by a large marble hallway that led to the main lobby.

I could tell that Ulquiorra liked this place.

"Over here," I led him down a different hallway and up a few escalators. I remembered doing a thorough research of the Dewey Decimal system, resulting in my advanced abilities to find what I wanted. Existentialism: 142.78.

"Is this—"

"No," I responded right away, picking out a small textbook and handing it to him. The title read 'Existentialism and human emotions'. "This should explain a lot of things that you've thought about."

He read the cover and flipped to the first page, immediately starting to read it. "This is not a romantic novel?"

"You don't need to read a romance novel to understand what it means to exist, or what it's like to harbor emotions."

A librarian appeared at the end of the aisle, rearranging books. Although the woman seemed older than thirty, her looks were the exact opposite. She caught sight of us and walked over, asking us in a hushed voice if we needed help.

"These books are on sale," she said, flipping her hair (purple with red streaks) over her right eye. "We have several rooms full of them."

"Um…we're looking for a series of manga," I explained, her nodding for me to continue. "I suppose you've heard of Bleach?"

She smiled, albeit there was a hint of sadness in it. "I used to read it all the time. It's been discontinued."

Her news made me do a mental double-take.

Discontinued? As in…over?

"Why?" I asked desperately.

"I'm not sure," she sighed. "They just left us fans waiting for the next chapter that was never published, then notified us a year later of its termination but didn't explain why it'd been terminated in the first place. Most of the books have been stored away, but we have them on sale along with all the other books."

I gained some hope at her words. "I'd like to see them."

Ulquiorra and I followed the energetic woman into a series of hallways and down an escalator. Finally, we reached a large room with tons of shelves stocked with atlases, encyclopedias, and other referential books.

"Wrong room," she informed us. "This is our reference section. The next ones will be arranged by the Dewey Decimal System. We're going to go through a lot of rooms, so it's going to be a few more minutes until we get where we're going."

I was amazed by the sheer quantity of books they were planning to sell and asked, "Why are you going to sell so many books?"

"It's a digital age," she said with a bitter tone. "Not as many people enjoy the feeling of a real book in your hands anymore. Those who do know how awesome that feeling is revel in it. Luckily, there are still many of those people."

Continuing our walk, we passed shelves of psychology, language, religion, governments, writing styles, mathematics, physics, biology, careers, the arts, history, and finally reached the last room, stocked with children's picture books and graphic novels.

"Feel free to take whichever ones you want. May as well give them away for free," the librarian yawned and turned to leave. "I'll be back in a few minutes. Take your time."

I nodded and heard the door shut before I gave an excited laugh and went up to the shelves, seeking out the volumes I was looking for. Naruto…XXXHolic…Tsubasa…Loveless…Pandora Hearts…

"What are you looking for, woman?" he asked nonchalantly, looking up from his book only now after the time since I'd given it to him to read. He was probably enjoying this more than the romance novels he read.

"I'm looking for my source," I said casually, immediately seeing him paying more attention to what I was doing. "I bet you can't wait to find out what it is."

"Finding the source of your information is ideal for Lord Aizen to be informed on the possibility of our plans being leaked to others not involved or on neutral ground," he stared at me as he said the last part of his sentence, "such as yourself."

"I already told you I'm going to stay human," I reminded him, crossing my arms.

"Some arrancars are suspicious of your intentions. They suppose that you will betray us and tell the Soul Reapers of our plans."

Narrowing my eyes, I felt angered and hurt. So Grimmjow wasn't the only one thinking that I was going to cause their deaths. "I'm not going to betray anyone. I'm just a bystander." A bystander that wanted to change their fates for the better, if it was even possible.

"The espada and Lord Aizen cannot trust you."

"Do you trust me?" It slipped past my lips and didn't regret saying it. "Do you think there's a possibility that I'll go and give people information on how to get everyone here killed, including you?"

"There is a possibility."

There was so much confidence in his voice that it made me want to…I didn't even know. Yell? Hit him? Cry? All three of those?

"Alexia?"

"Why?" I was barely holding back the angst in my voice. "What do you see when you see me? A friend or a traitor?"

"I did not say—"

"Well, guess what?" My tone became more anxious and needy. "I don't trust you, either. You don't ever tell me what's going on with you when you clearly display it. Haven't I told you that you can tell me your troubles? Don't keep it all bottled in. You're always doing things that make me wonder if you either want to get rid of me or spend time with me. For all I know you could be thinking of how to kill me!"

His eyes gave me a steely glare but I didn't lose my angry expression. My eyes wandered to the area around him and I saw them. My anger led me to the labeled box and I almost ripped it open, searching for the volumes I wanted. Twenty-two to forty-four would cover nearly everything. After I took them out, I got the two with Ulquiorra on the cover and gave them to him. His eyes widened a fraction of a centimeter at the books in his hand.

"These are my sources," I said with finality.

[]{}{][]{}{][]{}{][]{}{][]{}{][]

Grimmjow: (Sulking)

Alexia: You really have a problem with your self-esteem, Grimmjow…

Unbr0ken: (Shrugs) He was being mean to Kiba so I let him in on the truth.

Me: That's more of an opinion ._., but in your mind it's the truth, so I guess it makes sense to you…

Grimmjow: Kiba doesn't even exist here!

Unbr0ken: O_O Oh...Then your still my favorite :D

Grimmjow: (Glares)…  
Unbr0ken: why do you care so much about what I think anyway?

Alexia: You have to accept his apology -.-

Me: At least tell him—

Grimmjow: Because I basically live on people's feedback. Why do you think I hate Ulquiorra so much? The bastard never says what he thinks.

Alexia: (Rage) He's not a bastard!

Unbr0ken: Yes he is (T_T )

Alexia: (Starts tearing up) You just don't like him in your mind, but to me he's—

Ulquiorra: I am what?

Alexia: O/_/O N-nothing! You're nothing to me! Ahaha…

Ulquiorra: …

Alexia: Nowaitthat'snotwhatImeant!

Unbr0ken: Well...since Alexia, Arekushia and Grimmjow are all acting like children Ulqui and I would like to thank you for reading!

Ulquiorra: (Nods) T_T Woman, I am expecting an apology from you.

Alexia: ;-;

Unbr0ken: Bye!

Me: (Shakes head) Bye-bye, everyone!

Song of the week: Loveless OST #8- Tragedies (Seimei)


	29. Perhaps

Me: :D Jay!

Unbr0ken: T_T Um…yeah?

Me: What's your type?

Alexia: Why are you asking him that?

Me: (Shrugs) I want to ( ｀∧´)

Unbr0ken: Uh…Well, I guess there's no harm in telling you…

Alexia: (Prepares a comparison chart in her head)

Unbr0ken: Easygoing, smooth and sexy :D

Me: So—

Unbr0ken: Like the filling of a strudel! That shit's orgasmic!

Alexia and I: O_O…

Grimmjow: Well, that escalated quickly T_T

Unbr0ken: When'd you get here, Grimm?

Grimmjow: Er, I just heard the words 'easygoing, smooth and sexy' and came running :D

Alexia and I: (Sweat drop)

Unbr0ken: That's to be expected ^_^ I mean, they (points to Alexia and I) are obsessed with a bland, not-chewy pop tart.

Alexia: What?

Unbr0ken: In other words, Ulquiorra (rolls eyes)

Ulquiorra: I am a pop tart?

Grimmjow: (Starts laughing his ass off) Definitely.

Alexia: B-but he's not…

Me: •-• I ate a pop tart a few weeks ago and it was delicious!

Ulquiorra: (Turns to me) You are a cannibal?

Me: O_O what, no!

Unbr0ken: Bet you'd like to eat him up (Smirks)

Me: O/_/O S-shut up, Jay!

Alexia: Seriously -/./-

Ulquiorra: Would you like to eat me?

Alexia and I: O/./O NO!

**SEPTEMBER TWENTY-FIFTH, PART TWO**

This was her source?

I looked at the two books in my hands. I was on the cover of both of them, one in my regular form and the other in my resurreccion. She was observing me for my reaction.

"What does this have to do with your source?" I took caution in wording my question.

"What do you mean, what does it have to do with the source?" she sighed exasperatedly. "You're on the cover of a book, Ulquiorra. If that's not clue enough I don't know what is—flip the book open and look through the pages of volume twenty-three. Read from right to left, top to bottom," she instructed. Doing as she said, I saw drawn images of me, in the world of the living. _This happened on September third_, I took account of the date. _This book was released years ago, but the details of that day are almost perfectly accurate_. The only content missing was the parts of small contact with Alexia, nowhere to be seen any of the pages.

"Did you think I was some sort of spy?" she asked with a skeptical tone of voice.

"How is this possible?" I inquired. "Who made these? What else is there?" I took a step towards her. "Just how much do you know, Alexia?"

She raised an eyebrow. "I know enough to know what's going to happen to you."

She turned to the book with my resurreccion on the cover and turned to a certain page. This shouldn't have been possible, but it was there. My segunda etapa.

"You'd asked me how I knew about your segunda etapa some weeks ago. Here's your answer."

I observed the page and the ones before it and after. In all of them, I was fighting Ichigo Kurosaki, in every single image. And I had very nearly killed him. With a worried expression on her face, Alexia got the next volume, this one with Yammy on the cover. "It continues in this volume," she murmured, handing me the book with trembling hands. Something in this particular book was either frightening for her or, most likely, unfathomable to me.

I was battling a humanoid hollow in the next pages, and I seemed to be on the lower hand. My arm was torn off. My speed was nothing compared to the creature's. I attempted to use a Lanza del Relámpago but it failed drastically and I was cut across the torso, my body split. The creature fired a cero at point-blank range and parted my body in two. It almost cut my body into pieces but a male with glasses attempted to stop him, being stabbed in the gut in the process. The auburn-haired woman I'd seen in the World of the Living was there, desperately calling out to the creature. 'Kurosaki-kun.'

The creature was Ichigo Kurosaki.

In the next few pages, I had regenerated enough of my body to advance towards the transformed Kurosaki and cut off a part of his mask, terminating the form of a hollow he'd taken on.

"I do not see what is wrong," I handed her the book and she looked at me as if I'd gone insane.

"Of course there's something wrong!" she exclaimed, her eyes tearing up.

"Why are you overreacting, Alexia?"

"I'm not overreacting!" she said and flipped the book open again, turning to a page I hadn't bothered to look at.

I was disintegrating. Turning into ash and being carried off into the wind.

My hands reached out and took the book, studying the pages. I had been about to attack Kurosaki once again when my wings had started to decompose. On the very last page, my whole torso was gone and the rest of my body was drifting away in the wind.

"Why do you think I'm so off when I'm with you?" she murmured, hastily wiping a fallen tear from her cheek and pretending that it had never been there. "Whenever I get at least a little close, I remember what's going to happen to you and…I don't want to get too close to you, but I can't help it…"

"How long have you known?"

"Years…"

"Who did this?" I asked. "Who published this book? Surely they know something."

She shook her head. "The author…the publishers can't be contacted easily. Even if they were, they'd probably think we were crazy."

"This is happening," I said, getting a book with Grimmjow on the cover, his hand outstretched to the reader. "Grimmjow _did_ go into the World of the Living. His arm was detached. So far, nearly everything that has happened is in these novels."

"Obviously," she mumbled, turning away to rub her eyes. Ignoring the pressing matter of this new information, I wound my way around her and looked her in the eyes, a red tinge on her cheeks as a response to my actions.

"Why does this affect you so?" I asked, wrapping my arms around her shoulders and stepping closer. She immediately stiffened.

"W-what are you—"

"Humans do this to comfort another when one of them is in need of comfort. Am I correct?"

"Even if you are, you don't just go around…," she tried to pry herself from my grip but I persevered, "D-don't just…"

"Do you feel comforted?"

I gave her some space and looked at her flushed face as she grasped the front of my shirt and buried her head in it, nodding. "Why do you do this?"

"Do what?"

She forcibly got out of my embrace and looked at me with a scolding look, although her cheeks were still red. I remembered it from a few novels I'd read; she secretly enjoyed what I had done. "D-don't just hug me without reason!"

"You do the same with me," I reminded her.

"That's different…"

"How so?

She averted her gaze and put all the books of the series we were scanning back into the cardboard box they were found in, refusing to answer.

"You are strange," I commented and handed her the two books in my hands.

"I'm not strange, I'm unique. You're strange, too."

She lifted the heavy box and struggled to put it back on the shelf and I assisted her, going up behind her and adding my strength to her reach. The only disadvantage was my height, which was only about an inch more than hers. Her arms were shaky and unsteady, and before I could process what was happening the box crashed to the floor and her arms were around me. She shook and sobbed.

"Alexia?"

"I'm sorry…," she whimpered. "I'm so indecisive that it's annoying…" Her arms tightened around me and we simply stayed in the same position, simply observing her. She pulled away a bit and I saw the streams of tears adorning her face.

My hand reached out and wiped the tears away, her eyes widening in surprise before she closed them and leaned into my touch, taking a deep breath.

"Is there a reason you're doing this that doesn't relate to some sort of human custom?" she murmured.

"The other woman will be back in due time," I said. "She will question us too much if she sees your facial expression, and we must keep this information from her."

Her eyes narrowed and she leaned out of my hand. "That's it?"

"What else is there?"

"…Nothing," she shook her head and crouched down to rearrange the books in the fallen box. At that given moment, the librarian entered the room again and apologized for the time she took.

"You're not taking them?" the librarian asked her. Alexia's eyes widened in response and the other woman chuckled. "I'm not selling them anymore, so you can have them if you want."

"Thank you!" Alexia replied excitedly. The other one shrugged.

"I already have all the volumes that were ever published," she explained, "and no one else wanted them, so I thought I'd just give them to you. I can tell that you want to have them."

Alexia thanked her once again and asked for my help in carrying the box. It was heavier than I had originally thought and I pondered over how we would manage to walk around with this much weight for the rest of the day.

"If you want I can keep them somewhere safe until later," the librarian suggested. "You seem more like sightseers than residents." Alexia seemed to be thanking the woman too often; she left the room and went over to a few books of the human anatomy. But before Alexia could take account, I transported the box of books through a garganta, knowing it would reach Las Noches and her quarters. I then followed her.

"This is what out brain's functions are," she explained. "This part, the cerebrum, controls our thought process and actions. And here is where our ability to have emotions come from. This is the deep limbic system. Aside from emotions, is it also the center of memories and libido…" Her face flushed as she said the last part. "I didn't mean to say that…"

I examined the diagram. So the heart was not the center of emotions? But often I heard of a human claiming that their hearts ached because of the sadness, 'love' or any type of emotion they experienced. If any organ of the body should have ached, it should have been the brain.

"When this in effect, your heart beat can speed up or slow down, depending on the emotions you're dealing with," she explained briefly. "So this is why you have emotions. The only problem how is how your other person is connected to all this…"

"Why do you ponder over him so frequently?" I asked her.

"I'm certain you know the answer to that," she raised an eyebrow.

"I do not."

She signed. "Do you want to cooperate with the other person or accept that person into your own individuality? And don't say that they're the same thing, because they're not."

Originally, I'd have assumed that they were the same. Now, as I thought of the meaning behind her words, I understood what she was portraying. Did I simply want to relieve myself of the pain and tediousness of dealing with him, or did I want to learn to accept him and let myself change because of it? In all truth, a part of me wanted the latter, while the other wanted the formal. But, surprisingly, the part of me that wanted the latter seemed more prominent and…existent. It should have been something I would let fade away into my mind, but it seemed to prod and tempt me. _These feelings of doubt are unnecessary. They should cease to exist and become nothing._

"Ulquiorra?"

"…What is it?" I slowly regained my sense of presence in the room.

"I didn't know you were going to go into such deep thought," she remarked. "There's a place where I think we'd spend the whole day—well, what was left of it—and it's a more peaceful place I thought you'd like." She placed the books back into their proper places on the shelves and led me down the elevator; she pressed the button to the main floor. Silence was present in the the capsule as the elevator slowly descended, the glass on the walls mirroring ourselves. In the reflection of one of the walls, I observed her distant and weary look. She struggled to keep her eyes open and almost stumbled and fell; it the elevator hadn't reached its destination in that moment she most likely would have.

"Are you alright?" I asked her, stepping out of the elevator. It started to close on her and she rushed to press a button which made it reopen.

"Mm," she rubbed her eyes. "I'm fine." As we exited, another sharp gust of air hit us and Alexia became less drowsy with the activeness of the environment around her. She put a hand in the pocket of her jacket and pulled out some of its contents, a few coins and bills. "We're going to have to take a taxi back to Millenium Park…"

"Taxi?"

She waved to something off in the distance and I thought that she'd found another one of her acquaintances, like the boy in France, but instead a yellow car which I'd seen repeatedly pulled up in front of us. Alexia quickly pulled me into the car and told the driver of her destination.

"Is is not dangerous to simply get inside of an automobile of a stranger?" I asked her. She laughed slightly and shook her head.

"This is a taxi," she said, looking out the window. "You tell them where you want to go and they'll take you."

"Anywhere you want?"

"Anywhere," she nodded.

A few minutes later we arrived at the spot where we'd eaten and drank the so called chocolate. We waited to cross the street and came across the ice skating rink again, but this time went past the metallic structure and to what seemed to be an auditorium. She went to the pasture of grass and sat down, pulling me down with her and almost on top of her, with a response of being pushed away before it could happen. We both gazed at the scene up ahead. There was a group of humans, using the instruments and creating strange sounds with them in a pattern of four beats consistently. Alexia smiled and laid back on the grass, staring up at the clouded sky. "Do you like the music they're creating?"

"Music?" I repeated. She looked at me curiously.

"You've forgotten what music is?"

"I suppose so. Is what they are doing called music?"

She nodded and folded her hands behind her head. "There are different types. You'd call this…orchestral. Symphonic. I'm not exactly sure what the name for it is." Her feet started to move slightly to the left and right, in beat with the 'music.'

"They're taking a break…," she saw, or rather, heard them finish whatever they had practiced and set their tools down, leaving by an exit to their left. She suddenly stood up and fished her hand in the small pouch she carried with her, retreating the capsule of mod-souls from the bag.

"What are you doing?" I asked her.

"Let's go," she said and handed me my capsule. When she saw me staring at her she continued. "Up there, where they were practicing. It won't hurt as long as we don't break anything and leave it the way we found it, right?"

"Are you sure, Alexia?" I said. She simply nodded and retreated a small, dark pink candy and inserted it into her mouth, wincing as she swallowed it whole. Seconds later her body separated from its containment. She looked to be in even worse condition this way; I saw a darkness under her eyes, and they eyes themselves were a bit red. Her skin was a bit more pale than it should have been. "What happened to you?"

"It's nothing," she tiredly waved a hand. "Come on, if you don't separate it'll look like you're talking to yourself."

I opened the capsule and ate my piece, this one a light blue. I felt unrestrained as I separated from my faux body, immediately lowering my spiritual pressure so as not to attract any Soul Reapers.

"Come on," Alexia weakly grabbed my hand and pulled me along. It seemed that without being in her marioneta she was even more tired, as I'd concluded when I was the one pulling her along after some time. She didn't seem to become flustered as I hoisted her onto the stage by her waist and I followed.

"What are these?" I said. One of the tools was what she owned in Hueco Mundo, the black contraption I'd seen on her shoulder, although this was more…wooden.

"A violin," she replied, walking around and inspecting each of the other instruments. Some of them appeared to be larger versions of the violin while others were completely different. "Do you think you know how to play any of these, Ulqui-cielago?"

Her use of my nickname was strange to me, but I paid it no heed. Instead I looked at the large instrument at the front of the stage, a sleek black contraption with a bench and white and black switches that connected to many strings.

"A piano," she answered before I could ask. "I took lessons for a little while but I didn't like it as much as the violin."

I cautiously sat down on the bench and settled a hand on the higher parts, pressing down on some of the keys. They made a soft and light sound that I found strangely familiar. Alexia watched as I continued pressing on the keys—when had I invented a name for them?—and her eyes suddenly widened when I played a pattern of four keys.

"That melody…!" she murmured to herself. Her wide eyes were trained on my hand. "Play it again."

"Alexia?"

"Play those four again!" she practically ordered. I hesitated a moment before playing them again. This time her eyes closed a bit. "Never meant to belong…"

"What are you saying, woman?" I said, starting to become impatient.

"I-it's nothing," she quickly shook her head of her thoughts. "Do you know how to play piano?"

"No," I got up, accidentally making the bench I'd been seated on scrape back and create a screeching sound. We both froze as we heard footsteps approaching our location and I found Alexia already running and beckoning me to follow.

"Who's there?" A woman came onto the stage and I sonidoed away, leaving no trace of our existence except for the improperly placed bench.

"Ha…," Alexia laughed a bit and let herself fall onto the grass. "That was close…"

"It was," I agreed, holding out a hand to her. She raised an eyebrow in question. "We do not know of the whereabouts of our marionetas."

"C-crap!" she sat up and took my hand, letting me raise her. She wiped her hands on her pants and took off in a sprint, looking left and right and back and forth for our faux bodies. We'd never thought of what would happen if we hadn't given our modified souls orders to stay where they were.

"We should simply wait for them to come back," I said to her after she'd ceased to run and now panted for breath. "It is in their nature to do so."

"R-rea…lly…?" she exhaled, falling on her knees and slowly lying down on her side. "I had no…idea…"

If not for the discovery I had made at that moment, I would have been a bit concerned for Alexia's well-being. "There. They are in a partially secluded area."

She forcefully lifted herself up and looked in the direction I pointed. "Finally, I thought we'd never find them." We both took off to the souls overtaking our marionetas. Once we reached them, many of the humans there whispered amongst themselves.

"Ma, why're they—"

"Come along," the mother said soothingly, albeit bitterly. In a voice her child did not hear she continued, "Some people must learn to contain themselves."

"Woah, woah, what's going on here?" A man called out to our marionetas. "No public—_teenagers_!" He walked away as quickly as he'd gotten here. I knew why they were acting in such a way a few moments later.

"W-w-what the hell!?" Alexia immediately reddened and went to her marioneta's side, her fingers uselessly trying to pry her away from my faux body.

"Why are they fornicating?" I asked. Alexia's head snapped towards me, the most red I've ever seen present on her face.

"Th-they're not f-forni—you're not even using that word right!" She hopelessly inspected our faux bodies, who were holding each other in their arms and kissing each other in a way that was anything but publicly appropriate.

The soul in Alexia's marioneta whined and pulled my marioneta closer to hers. "Woman," I called out to Alexia and she reluctantly looked over at me, refusing to talk. "There is only one method to make them stop."

"I…I know…," she shut her eyes tightly and covered her face in her hands. "But if we do that—"

"It shall not continue any further," I reminded her. She seemed to relax at this and nodded after a few moments of hesitation. At the same time as myself, we reentered our marionetas, disposing of the fake souls in them. I opened my eyes and saw Alexia before me, our lips still connected as she melded with her marioneta. After a few moments she came to her senses, realized what was going on and jumped away, wiping her mouth furiously. "Are you alright?"

She nodded quickly and averted her gaze, her expression hardening as she took out her capsule and read something engraved on it. "He color-coded these, I completely forgot—hot pink is…oh."

I neared her and she nervously took a step away, holding out the capsule to me. I scanned the engraving and found the persona for the light blue of my piece. Lenient.

"A-are you done?" she held out a hand hesitantly and I handed her the capsule, asking her what hers was. "It was…er…"

"It is in the past," I reminded her, inserting my hands in my pockets.

"Passionate…"

"I see."

Nodding, she rearranged her slightly disheveled hair and sent apologetic looks to the few spectators who'd seen the scene unravel with disapproval.

"Where are we going?" I asked her. She pointed to a place in the distance. There was a circular structure in the distance that rotated, the piece of land stuck out more than the rest of the land around it.

"Navy Pier," she said, finally composed enough to talk without stuttering or mumbling. Instead of the taxis she had used to get from place to place before, a man riding something…a bicycle, I suppose it was, was also pulling along a carriage and offering to transport us to our location. Alexia urged me to go on and I did not reject her offer.

"Navy Pier?" the man asked for confirmation and we both nodded. After we got in the open-air carriage we waited for him to start off. Before he did so he looked behind us. "You two make a weird couple, but at the same time it looks like you click together."

"W-we're not a—" Before Alexia could finish, the man started off. It surprised me that a human could have the strength to pull two humans along to our destination. Alexia averted her gaze from mine the whole time and I did the same, observing the environment around me. The body of water to my right was vacant and abandoned; the only signs of life there were the boats stationed in a secluded part of the water, waiting to be taken out.

The man reached our destination and we disembarked, a larger crowd of people settled in this area. Unlike the other places we'd visited, there was a great variety of faces among the crowd. Dark skin, light skin, brown hair, blond hair, gray eyes, the different combinations were endless.

"Do you want to go up there?" Alexia pointed to the figure I'd seen from a distance.

"What is that?" I asked.

"A ferris-wheel," she answered skeptically. "You've never heard of them?" I shook my head and she smiled slightly, taking my hand and pulling me along. There was a line of people waiting to get on, resulting in Alexia losing her patience minutes later and deciding to leave, saying that we would go on one the next time we came go the World of the Living.

"Are they that common?" I asked her. She nodded and we inserted ourselves into a shorter line leading to a structure that held crafted sculptures of animals which seated humans. "What is this?"

"A carousel," she replied. "It's not as popular as a ferris wheel but it's just as eventful, I guess."

In a matter of minutes we boarded the rotating structure. She hoisted herself onto a black horse with a golden mane and fiery eyes while I simply sat on a bench with an extravagant bird carved onto the side.

"You should ride one of these," she called out to me as the carousel began to rotate. The horse she was riding on began to slowly shift up and down as if it was alive and the wind, combined with the rotation of the carousel, gave the scene a strange realistic image to it as Alexia's hair billowed behind her and she leaned back, spreading her arms out and taking a deep breath.

I took extra care in rising from the bench I was seated on and going to a white horse with a black mane and deep blue eyes. Upon further inspection its eyes appeared incredibly real compared to the rest of its body. I climbed onto the horse and immediately felt a difference in between sitting on the bench and one of the carved animals.

"Like it?" Alexia asked, smiling over at me. For some strange reason I felt my own lips attempting to pull up in response but tugged the feeling back down and simply nodded. Within moments the carousel ceased to move and we exited the ride, going back to the concrete sidewalk. There was still a line of people for the ferris wheel that I was sure hadn't moved a great deal.

"Are you hungry yet?" asked Alexia, shouldering her small handbag and looking off into the distance. The thought of food seemed somewhat appealing and I nodded in the affirmative. "Hm…well, this is sort of stereotypical, but Chicago's known for its pizza."

"Pizza?" I repeated the foreign word.

"You haven't tried it?" This time I shook my head. "Well…I know I shouldn't be surprised, but I am. That just seemed crazy."

"What is this pizza like?" I asked, but she smiled and put a finger to her lips.

"You can find out once you try it."

We hailed yet another taxi and I watched the scenery pass by as we traveled. In front of an old complex was a crowd of formally dressed humans, a woman in a large white dress with a man linking his arm around hers among them. The crowd assembled around them were all cheering for the two, and I turned to Alexia for further explanation.

"Wow. There's a lot more romance in the World of the Living than I thought," she yawned, looking out the window as well as leaning over to press a button on the side of the door that lowered the glass panel in front of me. A gust of air blew in and made her hair flow past her shoulders, as if caressing my face. "That is marriage by the church."

"By the church?" I repeated her words. She nodded and continued to explain.

"There are different ways to become husband and wife with someone. An official way is legally. Both the husband and wife sign documents, or a contract of sorts—I'm not completely sure—but that binds them by the government. Then there's marriage by the church, or whatever religion you are, I guess. It's more of a laid back way that celebrates the uniting of two people. People bring gifts for the couple, they have a party and a series of thing happen during the party. Then, if there is one, the couple would go on a honeymoon. I'm not sure if that's supposed to be right after the marriage or just some time after the celebration…"

"Are you two planning something?" the driver in front of us asked. Alexia blushed madly and shook her head in a furious manner. "Just asking; I heard you say 'church', 'party' and 'honeymoon'. It just sort of popped into my head."

"I guess so," she leaned away and looked out of the opposite window as the taxi slowed to a stop in front of a packed restaurant. Giving a small sigh, I got out first and Alexia followed, giving a few bills to the driver before he left. "Well, here we are."

"Olive Garden?" I read the sigh above the entrance of the restaurant. She nodded and made her way inside with me trailing her. A horde of people were all waiting by the entrance and inside, some eating at tables while others held a disk in their hands. Looking over at one of them, lights on its circumference flashed red and vibrated, the holder of the disk sighing in relief before herding their family with them. A waiter stood at the entrance to the corridor they were off to and guided them.

"The wait's about forty-five minutes, at the worst. I just completely abandoned the pizza idea. Don't ask me why it was just sort of random," Alexia informed me. She'd gone up to the human at a podium and asked, then come back before I'd even noticed. "Do you want to wait?"

"Whatever is fine, Alexia," I said, making my way to a bench that had barely become vacant by the group of humans that had left. She had no other choice but to sit at my side, our legs and arms touching. The bench wasn't made for two but seemed to have too much space for one. Alexia was paying close attention to her hands, settled in her lap, and nothing else.

The disk in her hand suddenly flashed and vibrated, making her jolt. She rose from the bench and beckoned me with her, handing the disk to one of the employed there. One of them escorted us to a table for both of us to be seated at. Taking the opportunity, I glanced at what the humans were eating; no plate of food looked identical from the other, and the smell of bread and spices wafted from all directions.

"Here we are," the waitress directed us to a table in the center of a more secluded room with only groups of two. "I'm sorry for the wait, but Tuesdays always seem to be the busiest days of the week. All the other tables were taken; I know you requested a non-secluded area but this is the next spot available."

"It's alright," Alexia smiled a bit and met eyes with the waitresses'. Her voice had suddenly changed to a more soft and feminine tone, rather than the somewhat dull and involved lower (for a woman, not low considering a man's voice) she usually had. As soon as we were seated at the table and the waitress had left, she slapped a hand to her forehead and sighed.

"What is wrong?" I said whilst unfolding the dark green napkin and settling it on my lap. She saw and did the same, shaking her head.

"I hate when my voice gets like that," she explained halfheartedly. "It sounds so girlish and submissive. I'm not—well, I am a girl, but I prefer my usual voice. That other voice doesn't usually take over unless it completely slips my mind."

"I see," I simply replied and saw the two menus on the table. As I picked one up and opened it, I was immediately baffled by all the different choices to pick from. "Woman, what are you going to eat?"

"Eh, probably just soup. It's getting a bit chilly outside so I thought it was appropriate.," she shrugged and pointed to the specific soup she was talking about. Chicken and Gnocchi. "I suggest that you get something different, though."

"Why?"

"So we can try each other's food," she raised an eyebrow as if her answer was obvious to all. "You can have a bowl of soup—they let you have as much as you want here—and I'll try some of whatever you get."

"I do not know what to—"

"I think you'll like these," she interrupted, most likely already knowing what I would have said. The section she pointed to, in the descriptions, were pastas such as ravioli, lasagna and chicken alfredo. As I scanned the section the waitress came by and asked for beverages, Alexia getting the drinks for us both. I felt her finger tap my shoulder and looked up.

"Yes?"

"Um, you wanna try the wine sample?" she asked. I had no idea why they would have let us try wine but nodded. Two glasses were set down and minutes later we both had regular beverages in front of us. The waitress made a show of pouring a small amount of crimson-colored wine into our glasses and then left without a word.

Alexis brought the glass up to her lips and took a hesitant sip. Her nose wrinkled a bit and she screwed her eyes shut. "It's too bitter for me," she murmured, instead drinking her clear-colored and slightly gaseous beverage. She watched as I also tried a bit of the wine and actually found it to have a good texture and taste in my mouth. Alexia raised an eyebrow.

"It is not bitter," I concluded and set down the empty glass in front of me.

"People have different tongues," she shrugged.

In a matter of minutes, the waitress had come back with a small tray of food. Alexia explained that they were small meals to eat before the main course. She used a citrus fruit to wring out its juices on the crisped food, then took a small piece and dipped it in a red sauce.

"Calamari is pretty good…," she mumbled, slightly pushing the tray in my direction. I used a fork to tentatively pick a piece and dip it in the same sauce she had before bringing it to my mouth and taking a minuscule bite. Not disgusted with the taste, I continued to eat it until there was nothing left on my utensil.

"What is this?" I asked her. When she simply said the name of the food I asked for clarification on what exactly this 'calamari' was made of.

She laughed a bit nervously and answered, "Squid. I didn't know what it was the first time I tried it. It's a type of mollusk, you could say, similar to an octopus. Just think of Aaroniero's resurrection with a lot less fat and tentacles…"

"I have not seen his resurreccion, but from what I have heard from others it is hideous."

"…That doesn't help," she averted her gaze. At that moment a bowl of salad and soup came to our table, along with small loaves of bread. Alexia immediately set to eating the soup, dipping a piece of bread in the soup to soak it and then munching on it. I helped myself to a share of salad and quietly ate it. When Alexia looked up and found my eyes on her she blushed. "Why're you watching me eat?"

"I'm sorry," I said, "Your manner of consuming food is curious."

The waitress came to us once again and set a plate down in front of me. It was unprecedented considering that I hadn't remembered ordering something for myself. I once again looked to Alexia for answers. She shrugged.

"I just thought that I'd order for you," she murmured. "Is that okay?" I inspected the food she'd ordered for me. "There's lasagna, chicken parmesan and fettuccine alfredo, so it's a mix of three main platters in smaller portions."

I was already tasting each of the individual foods. They were…filling and creamy. "May we get more wine?" I asked without considering Alexia's reaction.

"You want more?" she smiled. I averted my gaze from her and nodded, biting on another piece of chicken. She called over a waiter and got him to bring another glass filled three quarters with the same wine we'd tasted earlier. "I didn't know you liked wine."

"I normally do not, but this type has proved to have a remotely likable taste," I replied.

"In other words, you like _this _wine," she restated her question and laughed a bit.

We ate in silence, too immersed in our meals. Then she reminded me of her proposal to exchange meals and did so after another bowl of soup was given to her. The soup was also creamy and I found myself finishing the bowl rather quickly.

"You're one of the few people I know that can actually finish all their food," Alexia murmured in surprise. She was still currently eating a larger portion of the fettuccine. "I can never finish the food they give us here. That's the main reason I just get soup."

Our conversation died out for the rest of our time dining. Our check came and, along with it, we're small chocolates. Alexia was highly amused to see them all there one moment and in my hands in the next.

"Hey, your face is a little red," she rested her chin in the palm of her hand. "Too much wine? Or are you just embarrassed?"

"The former," I replied right away. "There is no reason for my being embarrassed."

She nodded and got up from her seat and I did the same. She left a bit of money on the table ("as a tip," she'd explained) and we both left.

The sky outside was no longer illuminated by natural sunlight, but by human made contraptions. Hundreds of cars still plagued the streets, their lights shining. "This way," she took my wrist and led me away. I did not object—for whatever reason, I did not know. We soon came to a cemented path with pastures of grass in between them, some wide tunnels among them. We walked and as we did so I ate a few of the chocolates and gave the rest to her. She smiled and accepted them; the next few minutes were silenced, both of us concerned with finishing the slightly minty chocolates. She left the cemented path and laid on the grass, letting go of my wrist to do so. Surprisingly, the lights on the path were dimmed and, as a result, the exposed moon and stars shone brightly.

"Do you feel comfortable standing there?" she corned her neck to look at me. After a moment's thought I stepped onto the pasture and sat down, slightly leaning back with my hand, behind me, supporting me. A knee went up and I rested my other arm on it, gazing up at the seemingly minuscule stars. The moon I could see anytime I wished to; but the stars were something only this world had to offer.

As I turned to inspect Alexia, her eyelids were half closed but she had an expression I'd seen a few times today. She was concerned, bothered about something. "What is wrong?" I asked her.

She glanced over at me and quickly looked away, but she didn't seem flustered or nervous. No, she was portraying….fright. Dread.

"Ulquiorra…," she started, "I want to ask you something."

"Yes?"

"Tell me that you'll give me a straightforward answer."

"I will," I agreed without thinking deeply of her motive.

She sighed and wrung her hands out in front of her. "Here goes…" Despite her stating that, she spent another few moments in silence, contemplating. She only came out of her trance when I slightly leaned over her, making her blush and roll away a bit.

"I am waiting," I informed her.

"…If Aizen ordered you to kill me, would you do it?"

To say the least, her question confused me. "Why would—"

"Just answer," she murmured, turning away from me and curling up into a fetal position. "Yes or no."

I let out a small sigh and thought of my own relationship to her. We were more than strangers, more than acquaintances. Friends, perhaps? I'd never had any. Only allies and enemies, temporary comrades and Lord Aizen. Subordinates and superiors. But…what was she? What was this woman, Alexia, to me? She obviously saw me as more than a friend. I recalled my actions around her. One would say that we were close friends, were we not? Did I, perhaps, reciprocate her feelings for me in a way?

But in comparison to Lord Aizen's orders…

The answer was sure to disappoint her.

But why did it disappoint me as well?

By this time she had noticed my silence and sat up, looking me in the eyes. Instead of the blank and vast feeling I experienced, I felt a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach and found myself searching for something within her eyes. The woman in my dream, I'd had a few more visions of her. I was now certain of them and knew they were a part of my past. The depths of that woman's eyes had portrayed usage and betrayal, in the future to be taken out on me.

As I looked into Alexia's eyes, all I could infer from them was genuineness and concern. There weren't any signs of ulterior motives. The meaning of love, did it mean that you left yourself vulnerable to another person and placed all of your trust in them?

Was I doing the same with Alexia, as she was with me?

"Ulquiorra, you seem more thoughtful than usual," she murmured, looking away and up at the sky once again. "I still want an answer."

"My answer will confuse you," I said. "I will only complicate matters. I will complicate _you_."

"You're not that hard to figure out," she contradicted. "I understand you."

"Do you really?" I said, my tone of voice a bit harsh—or was it strained? "The chances are slim, woman."

"I _have_ been the luckier type of person for the majority of my life," she crossed her arms at me. "Sort of…not really…okay, that's not the point. Point is—"

"We should leave," I stood up and opened a garganta, ignoring her statements completely.

"Ulquiorra, you still haven't answered!" she scolded me and took a hold of my arm, pulling me back. It was a familiar feeling to have her arm on mine, and almost welcomed it.

_What is happening to me?_

"Woman," I started, peeling myself from her grip, "it is better if you do not know."

"Why?" she calmed herself a bit and looked me in the eyes again, stepping closer. Unbeknownst to me, some heat rose to my cheeks. If not for the dimmed street lights, Alexia would have instantly been able to see the slight tinge of them. "I don't know what to think of you. It's like your almost trying to protect me. Like—"

"That's enough, woman," my stare became a sterner glare than I'd originally intended and she instantly received my indirect message to her, taking a cautious step back. Her reaction made me feel regretful and slightly inferior. I was on the verge of apologizing to her but she was already taking a step through the garganta. On instinct I hurriedly followed. A feeling of relief passed through me when I saw her acting calmly, silently.

_Since when did I care for her like this?_

We reached Hueco Mundo and she immediately departed from me. Deciding it would not be best to follow her, I went to my own quarters and a feeling of drowsiness overtook me the moment I stepped through the door. Without leaving my marioneta, I went to the bed, hastily undid the covers and got in, falling into a deep slumber seconds later.

…_!_

I woke suddenly, sitting up immediately. What kind of dream had that been? Why would I envision Alexia…

**'Lust's got to get out soon,'** he reminded me. It shouldn't have been possible for me to hear him. I was still in my marioneta. **'It doesn't matter who.'**

The images were fresh and clear in my mind.

_**"Ulquiorra," Alexia hung onto my shoulders as I set a flutter of small kisses down her neck. Her mouth opened and she gave a small moan, closing her eyes tightly. "Ulqui…"**_

_What is going on with me?_

This was wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong. The idea of doing such things to her, things that I did only for my own self-satisfaction, was…

**'Tempting, isn't it? Especially if she doesn't want to. It'll be like forcing her to do something she never thought she'd have a chance to do.'**

_I will not force her._

**'Why not? It's not like you care about her.'**

The truth was finally clear to me, albeit still confusing. I _do_ care for her. I might…I might have come to reciprocate her feelings for me. Perhaps…

These feelings and actions, these words and thoughts, were all because of one thing I did not know how to handle.

Love.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Alexia and I: (Hiding in the corner of the room)…

Unbr0ken: (Sitting in Grimmjow's lap) You _do_ know we can see you just fine?

Grimmjow: Jay…why are you sitting on me?

Unbr0ken: Uh… fanservice :D

Ulquiorra: I went to the World of the Living and bought strudels and pop tarts T_T (Hands them to Unbr0ken)

Me: (Hopeful glint in eyes) Pop tarts?

Unbr0ken: Yaaay, strudels for breakfast!

(A few minutes later, Unbr0ken manages to prepare even strudels and pop tarts to perfection [He's seriously that much of a good cook, no sarcasm intended XD])

Me: These are so good *-,*

Ulquiorra: Woman T_T

Alexia: ?

Ulquiorra: When you eat a pop tart, do you imagine it is me that you are eating?

Me: O/_/O No!

Alexia: (Almost chokes on food) N-no way…

Grimmjow: What about you, Jay? Are ya imagining that strudel's me?

Unbr0ken: (Smirks) Sure (Stares at Grimmjow while slowly taking a bite of the strudel and then seductively licking off the cream filling)

Grimmjow: O_O

Unbr0ken: (Smiles innocently when done)

Me: Oh my god, Jay -_-"

Alexia: (Laughing at Grimmjow's expression)

Unbr0ken: Thanks for the strudels and pop tarts, Ulquiorra ^_^ Eating them was fun.

Ulquiorra: (Nods)

Alexia: So, we've reached another benchmark :D And we have our prize…uh…

Me: (Panics) Right here! (Holds out platter of assorted strudels and pop tarts) Every one who reviewed gets their choice of either a pop tart or strudel!

Unbr0ken: (Already forgot about the incident with Grimmjow thirty seconds ago) You thought that up at the last minute, didn't you?

Ulquiorra: She had originally planned to give everyone gift cards for Olive Garden T_T

Me: Fine, they get that too -.-

Alexia: Bye, everyone (Waves)

Grimmjow: O_O (Still in shock)

Song of the week: Scream and Shout by Will. and Britney Spears


	30. I confront the confusion, sort of

Me: So, Monday was April Fools day :D anybody play any pranks on someone?

Ulquiorra: (Shakes head)

Alexia: Nah, I didn't feel like messing around with people -_-

Me: What's with that face?

Grimmjow: I played a prank on Alexia (Laughing his ass off)

Unbr0ken: :D Yeah, and I helped him out with it!

Me: (Tilts head) Really? What'd you do?

Grimmjow: We told her that Ulquiorra was dead :DDD

Me: O_O THAT'S HORRIBLE

Unbr0ken: XD I know, right?

Alexia: T-T That wasn't funny…you guys are jerks…

Ulquiorra: T_T You believed them?

Alexia: ;-; Yeah…

Ulquiorra: But I am alive.

Alexia: That's not what I thought T-T

Grimmjow: (Rolls eyes) I just got Unbr0ken to show her the episode of Bleach where Ulquiorra turns to dust, god -.-

Me: That's horrible!

Unbr0ken: Why T_T It's not like it doesn't happen.

Me: ;-; But she's trying to stop it from happening and you guys are showing her that! You're lowering her self esteem and morale!

Ulquiorra: T_T What does a human do to higher another human's self esteem and morale?

Unbr0ken and Grimmjow: (Grins mischievously)

Alexia: -_- Don't listen to them!

Grimmjow: (Whispers to Ulquiorra)

Ulquiorra: (Stares into Alexia's eyes) You are hideous.

Alexia: O_O (Mental breakdown) W-wha…unh… T-T

Unbr0ken: :D (Whispers in Ulquiorra's ear)

Me: Oh no you don't! Don't make it worse!

Ulquiorra: (Kisses Alexia on the lips)

Alexia: O/O!

Unbr0ken: He says he's sorry ^_^

Me: O_O Let's start the chapter…

**SEPTEMBER TWENTY-NINTH, PART ONE**

_Wake up!_

I woke in a cold sweat, panting hard and a pain pounding my forehead. _Goddamnit._

_ Why?_

I'd rather have had last week's sleep deprivation. Apparently, my hours and days of sleeplessness resulted in this: longer periods of sleep. So far I'd had a record of sleeping for a whole day. Grimmjow, with his coma-phobia, had immediately panicked and yelled at Ulquiorra for not watching me better. But it's not like this was anyone's fault.

The fact that I was sleeping like a lion wasn't my problem. It was what happened while, as, and because I was sleeping. I was beginning to have the same dream over and over again. The one that I'd drawn. I didn't even like thinking about it. That was the one that occurred the most.

The others were mostly dreams of my past. Some of them good, some of them bad. The time I'd gone to the butterfly field was clear to me now. The dream with Sammy had repeated itself a few times, but for an unknown reason that scared me, I was becoming less affected by it.

Dreams weren't usually real, I knew that. But…they seemed so vivid and alive. One time I woke to find that I couldn't move my limbs for several minutes. It had to be one of the most panicked moments of my life. Dreams. They weren't the only things hindering me.

Because of my sleeping so much, I hadn't been able to press answers from Ulquiorra. Luckily he'd used a garganta to send the box of Bleach volumes to my room; otherwise I would've forgotten them in Chicago. Now that I'd shown him—to say the least, his reaction was less than I'd expected. A lot less. He could've at least shown some concern for his death…Without some value time to actually ask him, I'd never be able to talk with him some more and try to change his mind about Aizen. Before it was too late.

I didn't want to face him, at the same time. Our conversation right before we'd come back from the World of the Living hadn't ended well and I didn't know how he'd taken it. There were a thousand different possibilities of what he could have thought, and his extremely revealing character gave me plenty of clues to narrow it down.

That is to say, I couldn't get anything out of him.

_Speaking of too late,_ I scoffed, it's _September twenty-ninth_. There was only about nine days until Orihime would be captured and brought here. And I had absolutely no plan to change things. It was pretty pathetic, but even more so that I was thinking of how pathetic it was and not doing shit about it. But as of right now, I couldn't do anything. My sleep spells came of their own accord at the least expected times, so even if I did have some sort of plan I'd probably collapse before it could even get around to all the espada.

It also hindered me from training. I wasn't going to just stand there while everyone else was fighting, of that I was sure of. My training was coming along rather smoothly, different people offering to train me on different days. Even Gin had helped me out one time and I'd learned a bit. I was pretty good.

For a human.

"Alexia, stop wallowing in SELF-PITY!" I yelled tiredly and fell back onto the mattress. I'd never appreciated how soft and springy it was until now. Most people would kill for a mattress like this. _Even my thoughts are pointless_, I thought and facepalmed, yawning at the same time. I didn't want to go out for fear of collapsing somewhere and being kidnapped by some strange arrancars and…My dreams were getting to me too much.

I groggily sat up, twisting my torso to crack my back. My neck was sore and my legs were mildly numb. Was I becoming paralytic? I answered my own question by getting out of bed and grabbing my sketchbook, taking a pencil in my mouth and balancing a small drawing table in my arms along with the sketchbook and eraser. Throwing them onto the bed, I soon followed suit and set everything up, then crossed my legs and tied my hair over my shoulder with a scrunchie that was on my wrist.

It hurt to crane my neck, but I had to as I leaned over the drawing board and started. Long strokes across the bottom of the paper, with the occasional slope up or down. Then there were leafless trees, with thin and fragile branches. I put larger ones near the bottom of the paper and smaller ones near the line across the paper I'd drawn, creating the perception of what was near and far. At the top, I drew a reversed crescent moon the size of my palm, flawlessly curved. I stopped myself from drawing stars (I was getting too carried away and, not to mention, drifting off) and got a thick charcoal stick and pencil, outlining everything with the pencil before using the stick to darkly shade in the vast sky. I used my finger to smudge the charcoal around and smooth it out, being careful to leave the drawn portions clean, although they'd eventually get dirtied from the sky I'd drawn (although it wasn't drawing as much as shading).

The paper I'd drawn on was fairly large, enough to pin it up as a poster board. I thought about hanging it up on the wall above the headboard of my bed but got a better idea. Ulquiorra did always seem to like Hueco Mundo's limitless, vast and empty sky, not accounting for the vigilant moon.

It was strange that I was alone right now, since usually someone would be coming in to check on me. Or would they? I didn't know if it was morning, afternoon, evening, or the middle of the night. I no longer had a watch to check, for obvious reasons.

Panic.

It creeped up on me suddenly and and I struggled to keep my breath steady.

_Why?_

_ Calm down._

An ache in my heart made me screw my eyes shut and I couldn't stop the tears from flowing.

What was I doing here? I'd changed nothing. What _could_ I do? Would I even be able to do anything, or was I just making extra things happen that had no effect whatsoever? How could I possibly make anything else change now, this late? I'd had two months and instead I'd gotten mixed up in a stupid love scandal and gotten more ill by the week.

I didn't want them to die. Even if I hated some of the espada, I wanted them all to survive. No doubt they were all under the influence of Kyoka Suigetsu, Aizen's zanpakuto. Was I strong enough to break their illusions?

Was I under its influence as well?

There were too many questions and no answers. My tears continued to stream down my face. Looking down in a trance, I quickly wiped them as soon as I saw two damp spots on my drawing. Minutes later, my breath went back to normal and I felt the usual tug of sleep. Welcoming it wholeheartedly, I didn't bother to take the things on my bed off before I was lost into consciousness.

**_ "Alexia," Mireya called out to me. Turning my head towards her uncaringly, I raised an eyebrow in question. "You missed a call from your aunt. Apparently you got a letter from that college you appl—"_**

**_ "REALLY?!" Suddenly all my attention was trained on my roommate, who in turn rolled her eyes. "Gimme the phone!"_**

**_ "Geez, it's not like you won the lottery," she tiredly dropped her cell from the bunk bed above me and went back to filing her nails. "Hurry, I need to text back my bf."_**

**_ "Another one?" I nonchalantly asked. She always seemed to be getting a new boyfriend whenever I took my eyes off of her. If not for us being roommates we'd probably not even know each other. As it was, we were only acquaintances._**

**_ "He's really cute."_**

**_ "And?" I said as I dialed my aunt's number._**

**_ "He's sort of a douche…"_**

**_ "Nice eye you have," I remarked and put the phone to my ear. I could tell that she was going to give me a remark in return._**

**_ "Least I have one."_**

**_ "An eye?"_**

**_ "No, stupid, a boyfriend."_**

**_ I nodded even though she wouldn't see me and devoted all my attention to my phone once I heard the line pick up._**

**_ "Hello?"_**

**_ "Hey, Bea," I greeted, recognizing her voice right away. "I heard that I got a—"_**

**_ "Someone's a little too eager," she pointed out and I murmured a sorry. "It's alright, I can tell you're excited about it."_**

**_ "What college is it from?"_**

**_ "What do you mean, 'what college'? It's the _****only****_ college you applied to, Alexia." That made my face flush in embarrassment. It wasn't my fault that none of my other choices had caught my eye. I immediately regretted putting the call on speaker as I heard Mireya scoff._**

**_ "What did it say?" I cleared my throat._**

**_ "Well, in all truth it got here yesterday. I mailed it to your dorm so you should get it either today or tomorrow."_**

**_ My heart beat faster. "R-really? I better be on the lookout."_**

**_ We conversed for a few more minutes and eventually had to end the call so Mireya could text her 'boyfriend'. Using a different phone when I mustered up enough energy to do so, I called the office of my school and asked for any mail for me. Nothing came up and I had to go through eternal hell._**

**_ Well, eternal hell until the next day._**

**_ I went to the office the next day, a Friday, after class and discovered a letter in my inbox. My heart skipped a beat. _****Don't overreact****_, I thought to myself as I cautiously took the envelope._**** It might just be a letter from a…friend…**

** As if I even have ones that mail to me instead of emailing.**

**_I was probably causing a scene for myself as I closed my eyes and opened them decimeter by decimeter._**

**_ The letter was indeed from the college._**

**_ I gulped. I didn't know the contents inside; in a trance of sorts, I went back to my dorm. Mireya wasn't back yet, probably spending time with her friends or her 'boyfriend'. Sitting on my bed and crossing my legs, I tried to open the letter as carefully as I could. Opening letters was not my specialty at all. When I finally did open it, I tentatively opened up the folded paper inside, as if a bomb would detonate if I hurried. I read the letter again and again, trying to process its contents._**

**_ 'Alexia Snow,_**

**_ We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to—'_**

**_That was all I needed to nearly have a heart attack._**

**_ I stared, not sure what to do. I was accepted to the university that had been on my mind ever since coming to live with my aunt in Chicago, five and a half years ago (yes, I'd been keeping track of the time). And then my brain processed the new information with a satisfied finality and it all hit me._**

**_ "YES!" I jolted up and hit my head on the bottom of the bunk bed above me, making me fall back onto my bed with a groan. "Mother fucker…"_**

**_ I laughed a little and ignored the pain, going to the closet and getting out my long, black and white coat and throwing it on, then getting my school ID from the top of my dresser. It was what we used to exit and enter the school whenever we wanted, within reason, of course. And what better day to go out than on a Friday?_**

**_ At the school gate, I scanned my ID and clutched the letter in my hands as the gate slowly opened, then sprinted out and onto the street. My aunts house was only a few blocks away, but my aunt had insisted I get a dorm to get a feeling of independence. That was only one of the many things I loved about her._**

_** I inhaled deeply, looking up at the environment around me. It was sunny today, and the weather wasn't too cold or hot. My head was still hurting, of course, but I tried to ignore it the best I could as I crossed an intersection and went left, avoiding an extremely bad driver that almost ran me over. It could've also been me, not exactly coordinated at the time.**_

**_ I slowed down after a minute or two. _****Crap****_, I thought,_**** I really need to start running again or else I'll be like this again****_. Now the area around me was more quiet, probably because I was in the part of Chicago where there were less intersections and towers than apartment complexes and parks. I started off in a jog, crossing the street again when the letter slipped out of my hand and onto asphalt. Sighing, I crouched down to pick it up—and that's when it happened. Time slowed down and darkness enveloped the scene around me, not letting me see what happened next._**

**_In the next second, I was surrounded by flames. My heart skipped a beat and I desperately looked for a way out, an escape, but found no such thing. _****Shit****_, I thought, _****what the hell I going on?!**

**_ "Alice?"_**

**_ I froze when I recognized that voice. Mom. Diana. I didn't know what to call her anymore._**

**_ "Alexia."_**

**_And dad. Their voices echoed in the dark void and I couldn't tell where they were. "W-where are you guys?" I called out for them, not sure if I should be relieved or scared. I could hear them speaking but through the echoes they created I could made out anything they said only barely._**

**_ "Did you come back to us?" my mother's voice was suddenly in my ear and I jumped, turning around. There she was, black hair curled and up to her shoulders. As usual, she was wearing blush and eyeliner; otherwise her skin would look like porcelain, which I knew she thought looked grotesque. There was no traces of her being ill in any way, but I knew better. She had called me Alice, after all. That was indication enough._**

**_ I inclined my head and looked down at my feet. _****Just a dream. You'll wake up soon.**

**_ A numb sensation called my attention and my eyes went wide when I looked to where the sensation was coming from. My right hand was burning to a crisp, bone starting to show and bringing a gagging smell. My stomach overturned when I saw it and struggled to keep myself from regurgitating. The flame that had decomposed my hand was now creeping up my arm and I barely contained a scream. The thing that frightened me the most was the fact that I couldn't feel the burn or the sting of the fire, as I would have assumed. All I could do was watch in revolt as meat showed and crinkled, leaving nothing but a crisp skeleton._**

**_ "You remember that day, don't you," my mom stated and caressed my face. I flinched at the contact and it didn't go unnoticed by her. "You were far away from us when we burned down. Your brother was safe but we couldn't be saved. Perhaps if you hadn't left us then you could've saved us, Alice. You would always come to our aid."_**

**_ I bit my lip to keep from retorting back at her. _****Don't call me Alice****_. I looked over my mother's shoulder to see my father, his back to us. I knew he'd given up a long time ago on my mom. I didn't feel any bitterness towards him, even if he stood there and did nothing._**

**_ "Won't you save us, Alice? I know that only you can."_**

**I'm not Alice.**

**_ "We'd still be here for you if you hadn't left us, Alice."_**

**Stop calling me that.**

**_ "We'd still love you, Alice."_**

**_ "I'M NOT ALICE!" I finally found my voice. I looked up at my mother's face with defiant eyes. She was an illusion that couldn't hurt me. I ignored the flames consuming my right arm and continued. "I am Alexia, and I don't care if you love me, if you're here for me, if I'm the only one who can save you or not! I'll decide for myself what I can't and can do. You aren't the one who decides what my life will be like."_**

**_ My mother was engulfed by flames and lost from my vision. This time I definitely felt the immense heat and intense pain of my arm and let out a blood-curdling scream as I was surrounded by the fire. Is this what my parents had felt like, in the fire that had killed them? The flames jabbed at me and made burns all over my exposed skin. They would never cease to prod at me and cause pain. I felt tears welling and going overboard and I tried my best to endure. _**

**This is what dying feels like.**

When I woke, I stayed in shock for a few minutes. I'd never had this dream before. In a trance, I sat up and rubbed my eyes. How long had I been asleep this time? An hour? Or twelve? Was it today or tomorrow?

"Yo," a voice made me jolt. "You okay?"

"Grimmjow?" I whispered. I rarely even used my voice anymore, and it felt a bit sore.

"Yeah. What happened to you? You were moving your eyes around a lot in your sleep, I thought you were searching for something on your eyelids or something."

"Grimmjow, that sounds really stupid," I scoffed and yawned a second later.

"Hey!"

"It…does," I finished up my yawn while saying so and fell back onto the bed. I didn't want to give any indications that I was a little disturbed by my newest dream. In my point of view, it wasn't something urgent. So I'd burned to a crisp and talked to my deceased mother. _It's not like she's coming back from the dead_, I mentally scoffed. "Did you just come here to visit?"

"And to push your ass out of bed if you weren't awake," he added, lounging on the couch as usual. It was strange, seeing him do things with only his right arm like it was some sort of magic trick. At least, I wished it was. He noticed my drawing and raised and eyebrow; suddenly I remembered it was next to me and jolted away from it so as not to deal any damage. _How could I be so careless?_

Oh, right: I was sleepy. As for this week, that was reason enough.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"I think it'd be a few hours past midnight in the human world," he replied boredly. "Why, are you on medications or something?"

_Anti-depressant and self-esteem building ones would be great_, I thought to myself. I actually didn't doubt that Szayel had medications just for those sole purposes. After what he'd told me two weeks ago, though, I had to think more about what his methods were before jumping for the bait.

"You know…," I started just because I wanted to fill the silence in the room. I'd had enough of it. "I've got something to—"

An explosion brought me out of my speech and my eyes widened as I heard a deafening crash just outside of the door. Grimmjow was just as surprised as I was and clearly showed it on his face. "What the hell is going on out there?"

"That's what I'd like to know," I muttered with a raised eyebrow towards the door of my room. By opening it, we'd find out what was going on. I just didn't know if that was good or bad. Before I could decide for myself, though, Grimmjow had already swung the door open.

"Grimmjow, who is it?" I asked. He was still waiting for the dust to settle and I waited with him.

"Geez, if you were going to fight can you two do it somewhere else?" Grimmjow called out to the people outside and my curiosity got the better of me. As I forced myself out of bed, I grabbed a long sweater and draped it over me so I wouldn't show my bare shoulders and so I wouldn't get a chill.

Once the dust settled, I saw none other than Yammy and…his dog?

It was like one of those scenes that didn't make sense and you didn't know whether you should've laughed or just walked away. Yammy, his tall-ass and muscular self was chasing after a puppy that wasn't even as big as his foot. The whole thing looked creepy in a funny sort of way, but I knew that if I laughed he'd try to kill me.

Yeah, better not.

"W-wha…," Yammy noticed us with a start and immediately froze in place. Then he glared at both of us as if we had been the ones to cause all of the noise he'd made. "What're you lookin' at?"

"Didn't know you were the puppy type, Llargo," Grimmjow smirked, of course enraging Yammy. I waved my hands semi-frantically at Grimmjow, telling him to stop, but he didn't even glance over.

"Grimmjow, he's stronger than you," I reminded him.

"Not when I go into resurreccion."

"Uh…I think it applies to your resurrection, too," I sweat dropped. If they really did get into a fight…well, was it bad to say that I didn't want them reducing my room to bits in the process?

Grimmjow sighed. "Are you saying that because you don't want me to get hurt?"

I scoffed, deciding that maybe teasing would make him stop. "I just don't want you destroying my room. If you get hurt it's your own fault, I'm the one trying to stop you; so I shouldn't be at blame if you get your ass beaten."

"I won't get my ass beaten by this pansy," he replied. It was more than loud enough for Yammy to hear. Hell, it was probably Grimmjow's intention to let him hear every word.

"Who the hell're you callin' a pansy, ya blue-headed bastard?!"

Sighing once I realized I couldn't help the situation anymore, I gave a small prayer for Grimmjow's well being and started to back away when I saw someone at the end of the hall. I knew it was Ulquiorra right away; strangely enough, no one else seemed to notice him.

"Ulquiorra," I greeted him once he reached me, staring straight at me and not replying. His actions were a bit more straightforward than usual today, or maybe he needed to be this strict with himself. Whatever the case, I wasn't going to let it get to me too much.

"Woman, come with me," he suddenly said and turned a complete one-eighty, walking away and expecting me to follow. I was confused for a few moments but looked over at Grimmjow and Yammy, along with Yammy's dog. _I guess it wouldn't hurt to leave them alone for a little while_, I thought to myself.

I followed him in silence for a few moments before deciding to ask him where we were going. He simply looked over at me from over his shoulder and turned back forward as if I didn't exist. His actions were unreadable but my curiosity got the better of me and I didn't ask any questions. I lost track of how long we walked but I was thankful that I hadn't gotten tired yet, or else he would've had to carry me back. _Or maybe he'd just leave me here_. I scoffed at the thought. I really didn't know what to expect from him. The walls around us expanded and we eventually came to a section different and foreign to me; instead there were a row of massive columns, stretching as far as the eye could see, to my left. To my right continued the wall, with lighted torches to offer illumination. "What is this place?" I said, amazed. Nothing like this had ever been shown in the manga before.

"The main entrance to Las Noches," his low tone of voice was more monotone than usual.

"It's so…powerful," was the only word I could describe it as.

"That is what Lord Aizen is portraying," he said as if it was obvious. He started to walk again. "Don't dawdle, woman."

"It's Alexia," I corrected halfheartedly, catching up to him and observing him. He stared at me blankly and I did my best to do the same. "Is something wrong?"

"This way, woman," he said and traveled down the stone steps, down onto Hueco Mundo's sands. I hesitated for a second before following in haste. We started to walk away from Las Noches altogether. What was there to find out here? Were we even looking in particular for anything?

What were we doing?

"Um, Ulquiorra," I called out to him; he'd gotten ahead of me again, somehow able to walk at the same pace despite the way sand would usually slow people down. I'd already taken off my shoes and was walking barefoot instead. "Where are we going?"

No answer.

"Ulquiorra," this time my tone of voice was a bit more harsh. "Where exactly are we going?"

"…"

"Ulquiorra!"

"You shall see," he said simply. His answer irked me. I knew it was practical, but what had happened to telling me everything? Well, I guess I was being a little presumptuous about it, though…

"Here," he said. I looked at him and slowed to a stop, surveying the scene around me. So this was the place?

There was absolutely nothing here.

"What…exactly is supposed to be here?" I murmured, walking around the area. I tried to look for something that made it different from the rest of Hueco Mundo but couldn't find anything. "Ulquiorra, why are we here?"

"There is nothing here," he said.

"…Yeah, that much I figured out," I raised an eyebrow at him and crossed my arms. "What I'm saying is why you've taken me here."

"You dislike places like these," he stated more than asked.

"Well, I wouldn't say dislike as much as…I was expecting more…"

"This is the desert of Hueco Mundo. The hollow world. There is nothing here but the hollows and arrancar."

He wasn't making any sense. What was his point?

"When there is nothingness," he continued, "you cannot change what is not there. You can only accept it, but you also cannot accept what does not exist. What is not seen does not exist, and what is seen does not have a purpose."

"…," I stayed silent, entranced by his words. What could I say? _There isn't anything _to _say,_ I thought. I could only listen.

"I do not want to deal with the unseen. The unseen and the existent is troublesome. Moreover, what exists but is hidden may be disguised as nothing but is truly existent." He turned to me and stared intently into my eyes, and I felt as if he was staring into my soul and being. "Do you choose to submerge yourself in the existence of nothing?"

"…I don't know…I don't get it," I forcefully answered. It hadn't been my intention to answer him at all but after moments of silence I'd realized that he wanted an answer.

"Do not come near me if you do not understand. To choose to be near me is to submerge yourself in vast nothingness."

His words hit me with a certain suddenness. I couldn't say anything.

"Do you want to be complicated by the nothingness which consumes everything at an eventual time? It will happen at one time or another. All things come to an end and have to face the fact that their lives mean nothing and have meant nothing, no matter what they have done."

"That's not true," I suddenly spoke up, even though I hadn't been planning to say anything. "Why do you think there isn't purpose in anything, Ulquiorra? There's a purpose, always, whether it's important or not."

"What is your purpose?"

I opened my mouth to speak but couldn't answer him. The truth? The real purpose I was here? I didn't know it. I didn't even know how I'd gotten here. What I did know was that I knew what purpose I _wanted_ to be here for. "I'm here because I want to be at your side," I said firmly and with finality, stepping closer to him.

"Do you realize that humans and hollows, Soul Reapers and spirits, they will always be alone?" he asked, his stare turning a bit harsh. "It does not matter what bonds you make, you shall always end up alone with no one to support you, and the ones whom you thought you could trust will forget of your existence."

"If you make true bonds with someone they will support you no matter what," I answered back. "And even though I don't agree with you, I know what you're thinking. I used to think the same thing, that humans would end up alone. And it's true. We do end up alone. But it hurts to leave someone rather than being left. I'd rather stay by someone's side until they're gone instead of leaving them " I took another step towards him and stared intensely into his eyes. "And I know that, no matter what you say, you would be hurt if I left you. So I want to stay with you, and I don't care what it takes. I want to be there to help you, and I want us to continue to be like we have, helping each other and learning more about each other."

"You are wrong," he replied and I gulped, fighting the constricting feeling in my throat. Was he going to leave me here, or was he simply taking me here so I wouldn't make a scene as he told me he wanted nothing to do with me, and everything I'd made him change his mind about meant absolutely nothing to him? "Once I die, you will forget about me. You shall move on and learn to live without me. In truth, you will leave me and everyone else who shall perish in this war."

I narrowed my eyes and took a shaky breath, my hand reaching out and grasping the sleeve of his uniform. "I'll die with you, if it takes that much for you to believe that I won't leave you."

He was silent and I fought back the tears that threatened to fall. Had I really just said that? My mind was somewhere else; otherwise I would've been able to stop myself.

"But I won't let you die," I continued in a voice that didn't sound quite…mine. Maybe I'd just been used to being so uncertain and indecisive. "I'm going to come up with a way to save the Espada. I won't be able to live with myself if I just let you all die and don't do anything about it."

I was done, finally. I took another shaky breath and looked down at my bare feet, shifting them in the sand. It was all I could think of doing right now, burying my feet in the sands. "Woman."

"…"

I felt tears, but they didn't hurt. They were tears of relief. _Finally_, I thought._ I don't have to keep this inside of me._ His reaction to my words didn't matter. Finally, I had been able to pent out my feelings of stress. Finally, I didn't have to deal with this pain and panic and know that I was the only one who knew about it.

"Woman," his voice was slightly more urgent this time and I looked up through teary eyes to a majestic sight.

Grains of sand were slowly rising from the ground in the small area we were standing in. My eyes flickering to my feet, I saw that some of the sand covering my feet was also levitating. I took a few steps back in mild shock as an area around me continued to rise the sands. Then, the sand in the air began to form a circle and rotate, reminding me of a snow globe. Before my eyes, the sand separated into groups and shifted into vague shapes at first, then becoming extremely detailed. There was an image of a hollow and an arrancar, a small child whom had become an arrancar, and it was as if a village had sprung up from the ground. Even the image of houses and huts had formed from the sand. "What is this?" I murmured in amazement. A strong and confident-looking female arrancar walked by me, her eyes meeting with mine for a moment. She looked so real, I thought that if I brushed the sand off of her face I'd find live flesh under it.

"A phenomenon which occurs every few centuries, at the turn of an era. Most see it as a device to see what the future holds, others as cause for ceremony, but rarely is it seen as simply an event."

"How do you see it?" I tentatively asked, wanting to be cautious because of our recent discussion. He stayed silent and instead watched as the the sands shifted and told a story. The future.

I watched in a trance. It showed Ichigo coming here, finding Nel; Rukia fighting Aaroniero but not displaying the victor, Chad fighting Gantenbainne Mosqueda, and Ishida and Renji fighting Szayelapporo, but none of the scenes showed who won. Instead, when it should have shown the outcome or an important turning point it shifted to the next scene. Then there were people I couldn't make out, their faces blurred by the shifting sand and their forms too vague to identify.

"Have you ever seen this before?" I murmured, entranced.

"No."

I looked over at him out of the corner of my eye. His facial expression wasn't any different, but there was something in his eyes that made me curious as to what he was thinking.

Then the sand suddenly rose higher into the air, all of it coming together to form the shape of…an angel? The angel had wings that were about as wide as the body of the angel if on its side. The face, as others, was blurred, but the rest of it was shaped in agonizing detail, every hitch and curve in the winds and ceases in the clothing it bore. Its feet we're bare and its wings slowly folded, the entire angel suddenly decreasing in size to a girl. This time, her whole body and it's features were blurred and scattered into the sudden gust of wind that had blown up less than five seconds later.

All around me, a sandstorm had brewed up. I couldn't see even a foot away from me and hung on to nothing but my wits as I curled up into a ball on the ground and prevented as much sand from going into my eyes as possible. A few minutes later the gusts of wind and sand stopped and I tentatively sat up, cracking my eyes open.

"Ouch…," I murmured, rubbing my eyes at the sensation of having sand in them. After a few moments of letting my eyes water and eventually getting most of it out, I stood and looked over at Ulquiorra, who'd also gotten sand on him.

When I'd said there was something in his eyes I definitely hadn't meant this.

"You okay?" I asked. He simply nodded, his eyes still shut; I commended him for not rubbing his eyes and irritating them more. An awkward silence took over as I remembered how serious the air between us had been a few minutes ago. The atmosphere was extremely different now, as if that phenomenon had been trying of destroy the tension between us.

To say the most, it had.

Suddenly, I felt intense, dense spiritual pressure around me and shut my eyes. For some reason, this feeling was…familiar. As if I knew what was happening. The feeling lingered but I became accustomed to it and opened my eyes a few minutes later, giving a small gasp at the sight before me.

Ulquiorra's hair had grown longer, down to the mid-section of his back. His mask was gone but in its place were two slender horns on each side of his head. His green irises had turned yellow, and his tear marks had doubled. His whole torso was exposed, revealing a muscular yet equally scrawny chest with a larger hole than before. His rank was gone. Fur or hair started from his waist and formed a covering for the lower part of his body. A long tail with an arrow-like point extended from the small of his back. And an enormously large pair of black wings fanned out from behind him, shadowing out the moon.

"Ulquiorra." I was stupefied and amazed by his appearance. It was so much more…real. _So…beautiful_. I took another final step forward and tentatively put my hands on his chest, feeling every new muscles formed from his new appearance, my hands softly tracing the path of black going down from his hollow hole. My hands went up and cupped his face, my thumbs flowing down the new tear marks on his face and staring into his green eyes with yellow irises and stil-slitted black pupils. I reached up and touched the horns protruding from his head.

"Does this form not disgust you, woman?" he asked in a low tone of voice. I almost hadn't heard him.

"Why would it disgust me?" I answered softly, ducking under his wings and going up behind him, feeling the soft fur in the middle that eventually led to his wings. My hands shook as they moved further, feeling his expansive wings. They weren't anything like I'd imagined, soft and suede-ish but at the same time like thick leather. "This is…amazing."

"Amazing," he repeated my words. "What is amazing about being a black-winged demon whom believes in nihility?"

My eyes closed and I sighed, hugging him from behind and telling him, "You can do things no one else can. And if you think about it, you face the truth. Not a lot of people can do that.

"You're not a demon. If you were a demon you'd be a killer, someone with no consideration whatsoever, and I know that you don't kill unless necessary and you are more considerate than you think."

His wings temporarily folded and I walked around them to face him once again. He still hadn't changed much regarding his facial expression. For a brief moment I wondered if he'd accidentally gotten cement on his face or something. "Ulquiorra, please tell me if there's something…wrong…?"

I felt something wrapping around my waist and nearly jumped out of my skin when I caught sight of a snake wrapping around several times around me.

_No_, I thought, _not a snake. Ulquiorra's tail._

"What are you doing?" I asked whilst blushing a bit, resting my arms on his tail. It felt the same as his wings, leathery yet sort of…fuzzy.

"You asked me what it felt like to fly," he reminded me. "Would you like to know?"

"Well, you said that you didn't know how to explain it so—oh…!" My eyes widened as I processed what he was trying to say. It seemed so unexpected; one moment he was nearly arguing on his morals of nihility and now…now…I nodded meekly and tightened my grip on his tail, shutting my eyes.

"It is alright," he said, and with a simple flap of his wings he was in the air. I felt his tail tugging me forward and I stiffened, hanging on for dear life. As it was, I was starting to breathe more shallowly. "I will not release you unless you wish for me to do so."

After calming myself a few moments later, I nodded again, more firmly this time, and I was lifted off of the ground.

As my feet left the floor I momentarily felt panicky again but quickly reminded myself of Ulquiorra's words. 'I will not release you.' His words, not to mention remembering his somewhat comforting voice (although it probably hadn't been said in a comforting tone at all), made me relax a bit. I heard only the flap of his wings and looked into his eyes, that were staring into mine, as we ascended higher and higher. Once he stopped going higher and treaded in the air I took the liberty of looking down.

_Holy shit._

"W-woah…," I looked around me. It was like all of Hueco Mundo was being shown to me, Las Noches to my left and the wide expanse of desert to my right. I couldn't say anything, it left me speechless.

And suddenly we were flying.

I couldn't contain an excited laugh. We were going at such a high speed, my hair billowed out behind me. I could only grin and hang on to his tail. Then out of the blue we were falling. I let out a yelp and panicked at the feeling of falling and thought, _I'm going to die._ I wasn't afraid of heights, I could get on the highest roller coaster on the world without a sweat.

I was afraid of _falling_ from heights.

The sands were zooming in as we got closer and closer to the ground and I screwed my eyes shut. Then, in a split second, the sensation of falling vanished completely. _W-what…?_

"Was that overly intense for you, woman?" Ulquiorra asked nonchalantly. I reluctantly opened my eyes and saw that we were still in the air, about ten feet from the ground. I immediately teared up and laughed at the same time.

"You jerk…," I laughed out, wiping my eyes. He gently lowered me to the sands and unwrapped his tail from my waist. I smiled at him gratefully. "Thanks, Ulquiorra."

He simply nodded, staying in his segunda etapa only for a few more seconds before he reverted back to normal right before my eyes. Silence took over once again, as if nothing had ever happened. But the experience was in my mind and I wouldn't forget it.

We walked back to Las Noches and it hit. A spell of drowsiness came over me and I collapsed onto the floor.

My slumber was deep, yet quick. I even knew that it had only taken a few minutes this time. It could be like that, too, only minutes or even seconds of deep sleep.

"Woman," Ulquiorra's hand was the first thing that I saw and I immediately held out my own hand, being hoisted up onto my feet. "If you are lacking energy then you must rest in order to recuperate it."

That was a pretty complicated way of telling me to go to sleep.

He guided me back to my room and we simply exchanged glances at each other before I closed the door on him, sighing and leaning on the door once I heard his footsteps fade. What had happened right now felt like such a blur of events, and I didn't know what to think of them. Ulquiorra had acted so diversely in the span of minutes and there wasn't a way to explain it.

What I would give to know what was going on.

**_[Nine]_**

Unbr0ken: Where's Alexia?

Me: Hiding in her room, probably -.-

Grimmjow: (Smirks) She's such a prude.

Ulquiorra: Shall I go see her?

Me: Don't -.-

Unbr0ken and Grimmjow: (At the same time as me) Yep :D

Ulquiorra: (Leaves)

Me: You guys -_-*

Grimmjow: What?

Unbr0ken: (Thinks) Hey Grimm, why is your self-esteem so low?

Grimmjow: It's not that low…

Unbr0ken: (Rolls eyes) If I told you that you were a psychopath right now you'd get—

Grimmjow: I'm not a psychopath!

Unbr0ken: -_-" —pissed…

Me: (Watches)

Unbr0ken: Or if I said you were sexy as hell, you'd say—

Grimmjow: (Smirks) Ya think I don't know that?

Unbr0ken: T_T And if you noticed how I said that in the past tense…

Grimmjow: …Oh •-•

Me: :x

Unbr0ken: :D

Grimmjow: -_- You're horrible.

Unbr0ken: I'm blunt ^_^ Just saying the truth

Grimmjow: So I'm not sexy anymore…?

Me: (Facepalms)

Grimmjow: But…

Unbr0ken: (Sits in Grimmjow's lap) April fools :3

Grimmjow: -_- Damn you…

Unbr0ken: I love you, Grimm ^_^

Grimmjow: O_O What?

Unbr0ken: :D

Grimmjow: Wait, are you still joking?!

Unbr0ken: :3 I don't know, am I?

Grimmjow: •—• (Confused)

Me: O_o See you guys next week…?

Song of the Week: Anything Could Happen by Ellie Goulding


	31. Tell me something I—nevermind

Me: Hello ^_^

Alexia: It's been a while since you actually greeted the readers •-•

Me: -.- Eh. I just didn't feel like it, plus—

Unbr0ken: I gave her a lot of rant ideas that didn't start with a simple hello :D

Alexia: Oh, like last week's?

(Everyone looks over to Grimmjow, sulking in the corner of the room)

Grimmjow: (Mutters) Confusing little…saying shit like that…

Unbr0ken: (Glares at me) No T_T that was all her doing.

Me: ^_^'…

Alexia: I only saw his anger afterwards -.-' what happened?

Unbr0ken: (Shrugs) I sat in his lap and told him that I loved him.

Me: Hey, Grimmjow…

Grimmjow: =_= What the hell do you want?

Alexia: (Says it before I can) Are you sure you're straight?

Everyone except Alexia: O_O

Grimmjow: (Chokes on air) W-what kind of question is that?!

Me: On with the chapter! When we come back we'll have Grimmjow's answer :D

Grimmjow: I didn't agree to that!

**SEPTEMBER THIRTIETH, PART TWO *GRIMMJOW POV***

"I dare you to say that again, you bastard!"

"I'll say it a million times, ya fat sack of pudding!"

We'd been verbally arguing for more than ten minutes, of that I was sure. That dog that was with Yammy had left a long time ago, which left us at liberty to go all out, but for some strange reason neither of us had actually attacked the other physically. It was awkward for me since I'd usually never hesitate to jump into any battle I encountered.

"Get your ugly ass face away from me," I muttered and walked away. His loud and ground-shaking footsteps followed me. "I don't give lessons on how to not be a dumbass, so get your hopes down and stop stalking me, Llargo."

"I'm not stalking anyone!" Yammy shouted at me. He pissed me off more than what was healthy.

"Then get the hell away from me."

"Like I'm gonna let you go after you told me off like that!"

I rolled my eyes. "I've told you off so many times that I can't keep track of which time you're talking about, priss."

"You're gonna regret that," Yammy had finally had enough and unsheathed his zanpakuto, his spiritual pressure rising to higher levels. "By the time I'm finished with you—"

"You're not gonna have time to start," I interrupted and smirked. He grinned, an angry tick appearing above his head. His movements were slow as hell as he got himself into a fighting stance. Just to irk him, I leaned against the wall and lazily unsheathed my zanpakuto with one hand while using the other to cover my mouth as I feigned yawning. Or imagined that I was doing it, anyway. I couldn't quite do that anymore because of the lack of a certain limb.

"Bastard…!"

"Have you always been this slow?" I smirked and scraped the tip of my katana on the cold granite floor. "I'm starting to wonder if you're challenge enough for me."

That was all I needed to say. He lunged forward, his movements a little faster than before. Not fast enough. I dodged seconds beforehand and sonidoed away, standing on his shoulder and delivering a kick to his head. "Tch!" As he turned and swatted at me, I sonidoed off of his shoulder and reappeared on the floor right in front of him, swinging my sword horizontally and cutting his knees, cleanly ripping through the cloth covering them. Blood immediately started to seep through and stain, as if he didn't have an ounce of hierro . "Grahh…ya bastard…!"

"Seems like all you're good for is talking," I grinned and was about to attack again when someone interrupted. If looks could kill this stupid arrancar servant would've been eaten by the hollows, then regurgitated and eaten again. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I've got to get through," the servant held his head high. This was what I hated about our servants: they were either incredibly quiet, good-for-nothing, hesitant dumbasses or loud-mouth, defiant bastards. "If you guys can stop fighting and let me through—"

"Who the hell do you think you're talkin' to?" Yammy sneered, obviously as pissed off as I was.

"I have a good mind to cut you into a thousand pieces," I hissed and focused my attention on letting this servant know what his place was. Another thing about these servants was that they were fucking clueless.

"I'd like to see you—"

That was it.

I sonidoed to the servant and didn't hesitate to run Pantera straight through his neck. His eyes widened in surprise and he immediately started to struggle to breathe, coughing up blood in the process. "S'what you get, ya ignorant prick," I muttered and twisted my blade, the adrenaline in my body starting to rise as my aspect of death took over. Destroy. Destroy everything and everyone. Reduce them to a crisp, make sure to leave nothing behind. Another grin came onto my face, this one more maniacal and unrestrained. It'd been a while since I'd been able to kill anything.

I was so into enjoying the feeling of spilling blood on the granite floor that I didn't notice the fist coming straight for me until it made contact, a sickening crunching sound coming along with it. I flew into the wall, breaking through it and causing several portions of the wall to collapse on me.

"Fuck…," I muttered, using brute strength to push rubble off of me and coughing, shakily getting to my feet. I was pretty sure I had a broken rib, and maybe some other fractions I couldn't feel right now. The reason for that being my rage, clouding my senses. Surprises weren't my thing.

Out of the dust that was irritating my eyes and clouding my vision was the blade of a sword that I couldn't deflect. I simply let it impale itself in my right leg. I gritted my teeth and endured the pain, refusing to let Yammy know that he'd hurt me so much that I'd make some sort of sound in my weakness.

"What's wrong, kitty?" I heard him taunt me. "Ya need your milk?"

"…" _Don't say anything._

"Or a ball of yarn? Would that make you happy?"

"…" _You have to resist, Grimmjow._

"Some catnip for the kitten?"

_Anything but that._

"Bitch," I spat at him and forced myself to stand up, trying my best to ignore the pain shooting throughout my whole body. "Who said you could attack while I was kicking someone else's ass?"

"Who told ya there were rules to fighting?" Yammy snickered, his form starting to show. I sonidoed away from sight, dislodging myself from his sword, and let myself get used to the agonizing pain in my leg. I wasn't even sure how I could walk, but I forced myself to and fought him again. He was grinning the whole time we clashed swords, and I eventually got tired of seeing that hideous look and charged a cero, throwing Pantera at him.

**'Hey!'**

_Not my fault! I needed two arms and—_

**'Then it is your fault, bastard!'**

_You've got a pretty colorful language for a chick._

**'Wonder who I got that from? Ugh, throwing me at this hideous son of a bi—'** Pantera's voice was cut off as she made contact with Yammy's face. That's where I wish it would've impaled itself. Instead it probably hit his arm, temporarily confusing him. **'Stop calling me an it—wait, don't tell me you're going to shoot that cero while I'm in your range!'**

_Fuck off_, I mentally sighed and pointed my cero at him; the dust cleared away just in time to see his bewildered expression before I released my cero. I was thankful that we were away from the Espadas' room, otherwise I'd be destroying their rooms at the moment. The red hue of my cero died out and I saw Yammy, half laying on the floor as he fought to stay up, propping himself on one hand and one knee. "Ya…fucking…"

"Badass?" I finished for him and walked over (albeit with a stumble in my step) and picked up Pantera, in perfect condition. "Stupid, you won't get harmed if I'm the one firing the cero."

**'That's not the point,'** she scoffed. **'Behind you.'**

I sonidoed away just as the fist collided with the spot I was standing in. "You just love sneaking up at the worst times, don't you?"

"Stop talking with your sword like a freak," he taunted and grinned, making me roll my eyes. I sheathed Pantera and charged another cero to warn him but he didn't do anything but watch, effectively pissing me off.

"You better be on guard unless ya wanna be killed," I replied in a harsh tone. Instead of actually doing something I wanted, he grinned and stood up. There were no traces of damage from my cero; only the bloodied cloth on his kneecaps from my sword's wound. How? Had he been faking?

"Looks like you're gullible as hell," he said and stared at the other cero I was forming. In this one I packed all of my anger and power into. This one would hit, and hard. With that in mind, I released another bright red cero straight for him.

In an instant, he charged a bala and completely destroyed my cero, its rays shooting to the sides and crumbling the walls next to us to bits. He looked down on me with his smug grin and my eyes narrowed. My power. I needed it back, or else…_This's gonna look horrible_, I thought to myself in dread and sonidoed away, down the hallway.

"Where the fuck're you goin'?!" he called out but I didn't look back.

I hated not having the power I used to. The fact that it'd been given to Luppi of all people pissed me off even more. Now I had just this power left, and my resurreccion probably wouldn't hold out against most of the Espada. My pride told me not to go into resurreccion even though I'd probably be able to kill him if I did—and I always went by my pride.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by the silence around me. Had he decided not to chase after me? Keeping my guard up by raising my pesquisa, I looked over my shoulder to see an empty hallway. Then I turned around and felt an energy coming closer. Whose was it? It felt familiar yet—

A form emerged from the end of the hallway and I immediately sonidoed to it, swinging my blade. At the last second the other person blocked my blade barely, skidding back a few feet. My eyes widened as I saw who it was.

"Auri—"

"What were you thinking?" she panted breathlessly, her hands having a shaky grip on her own katana. "Your spiritual pressure's been fluctuating so I came to check out what's happening and this is how you greet me?!"

"Well, I'm sorta in the middle of a battle right now!" I said back.

She raised an eyebrow. "You're not going to like it when I say this, but it looks more like you're running away from one." Her eyes widened as she finally noticed the wound on my leg and practically freaked.

"It's alright," I grumbled and treaded a hand in my hair.

Yammy.

I felt his spiritual pressure only a split second before the punch to my back landed, throwing me to the wall. He did that way too much…

"Thought you could escape?" he sneered at me and unsheathed his zanpakuto. "Trying to escape—hah, you're such a girl."

**'WHAT THE HELL DID HE JUST SAY?!'**

_Oh my god, shut up_, I mentally rolled my eyes. I snickered (ignoring the pain as much as I could) when I saw Auria's angered expression. She and Pantera would get along so well. Forcing myself to get up, I sent a look to Auria and she nodded, mouthing something I couldn't quite catch. Not that it mattered.

I lunged, or at least that's what it seemed like, at Yammy and he prepared a punch that was cut short when Auria stepped in, slashing and stabbing his wrists several times. She was quick and precise, her eyes trained on several parts of his wrists, and smiled when satisfied and landed on the ground in front of me. She looked over her shoulder and smiled, leaving only an image of herself as Yammy supposedly punched her to the ground. Looking at the wrist that was holding some of Auria-inflicted wounds, I saw that they were leaking more blood than a regular wound would.

"I pretty much nailed his veins and other weaker spots," her voice was right behind me and I jolted, feeling her arms snake around my neck. "It was actually a lot easier than I thought. That medical school material I learned really helps out in the real world."

"Get any enjoyment out of it?" I asked and felt her arms stiffen. It was the wrong question to ask and reminded me of how I'd killed her in her sleep. "Nevermind, forget I said that."

"It's ok," she sighed and watched as Yammy pounded the ground, thinking that Auria was being reduced to nothing by his punches and kicks. "This ability comes in really handy," she changed the subject.

As if on cue, Yammy stopped and grinned at the floor, probably expecting her lifeless and bloody body to be there. "How's that, bitch? Bet she didn't even have time to rea—," Yammy stopped abruptly upon looking at me with what used to be a grin. I could practically feel Auria's smile as she waved playfully at Yammy. "Y-y-you!"

"Who else?" she laughed and took her hands off of my neck, making me want to have them around me again. We'd bonded a lot over the past two weeks and I found myself seeking her out more than usual. She crossed her arms as she walked in front of me and faced Yammy. "You hurt him and you're going to get your ass kicked by me."

"You're gonna let a girl defend ya, Grimmjow?!" he began to laugh at me. My anger rose fast.

"Let me remind you that you haven't killed this girl yet," I spat out, "and by the looks of it that's not going to happen anytime soon."

His laughter subsided as fast as I thought it would and he immediately came forward, Auria and I sending each other a signal before attacking. I sonidoed behind him and slashed both of his ankles. He gave out a shout and turned around, giving Auria the opportunity to charge a cero, an opportunity that was missed but instead substituted by a bala, and a more powerful one that I'd expected, making Yammy stumble forward and nearly step on me. I sonidoed into the air and fired another, smaller cero that nailed his chest. The area around a hollow hole was more weak and sensitive, and not many people thought about attacking in that area unless your hollow hole was hidden from sight. It was a great spot to hit, if you knew about its weakness and found an opening to hit it. Hollows also guarded their hollow holes the most, so it wasn't a piece of cake to injure the area around it. If and when you did, the victim could be prepared for pain that felt like the depths of hell itself.

"AGHH!" he shouted out in pain and fell to one knee. "You bastard! You mother fucking _bastard_!"

"Right back at ya," I muttered and took the opportunity to deliver another kick to his face, giving him a bloody nose.

"That was…surprisingly easy," Auria commented, staring at Yammy as if wanting to observe him as he went through the immense pain we'd given him. She shrugged and walked away. "I was hoping for more of a challenge."

"I wasn't," I smirked and followed her. Yammy finally stayed put but I felt his eyes boring holes into us in the form of a glare. "So, you sure you don't want to check my injuries…?"

"Your injuries?"

"…"

"Oh shit! You're injured!" she snapped her head towards me with wide eyes and I rolled mine.

"Nah, I'm perfectly fine. Of course I'm injured, stupid." All of a sudden it was like I was activating a spell on myself, and all the pain I had been feeling tripled.

"We should take you to Szayel," she pulled on my arm and made me wince. "Ah, sorry."

"I'm fine," I grumbled. "I can go myse—w-what the hell are you doing?!"

"Just let me take care of you, for once?" she scoffed. She'd hoisted me onto her back piggyback style and was walking without a problem, despite her being five-foot-three and probably no more than a hundred and fifteen pounds.

"Where's Szayel's lab?" she asked nonchalantly.

"Just keep going until I—wait, you're not taking me to him, are you?!"

"Where did you think I was taking you," I could practically hear the roll of her eyes. "You can't let your pride overrun your injuries, no matter how bad it may look that you got your ass beaten this bad."

"I just don't want to look like I was beat up by a chick!"

She momentarily let go of me and I felt the sensation of falling back, bringing momentary panic. _Little_…She turned her head and laughed at my expression in the span of a split second before catching me as I almost, almost made contact with the floor. Which would've brought more pain than I'd have liked to admit.

"Saying that makes you no better than Yammy," she remarked.

**'I'm liking this girl a lot.'**

_Shut it, panther._

**'Don't call me that! It's Pantera! Panther sounds so unsexy and ****_ugh_****!'**

_Yeah, because you definitely act like a female panther._

** 'You only say that because you haven't met one in real life'**, she huffed, **'except for that one that Szayel has, and you haven't even made real contact with it yet.'**

"Grimm?" Auria called me out of my thoughts and I hummed in question. "You suddenly got silent."

"Just thinking," I sighed. We came to Szayel's lab and I asked her in the politest way as I could (which still wasn't that polite) to let me walk and she hesitantly did so. I limped over and gained access to the lab, Auria following behind me.

"I heard what happened," Szayel immediately skipped any greetings and pointed to a medical bed. "You look like a mess, Grimmjow, did you have to get so carried away?"

"What do you think?" I snapped. "I don't give a shit about how carried away I get as long as I get a good fight."

Sighing, Szayel cleaned up my wounds with some substance that reminded me of rubbing alcohol, except this stung about a thousand times worse and healed the wound as it hit skin. I watched through narrowed eyes as the wounds closed on their own, new skin cells generated so quickly it was like watching it on a time lapse recording.

"Your wounds were a bit deeper than what meets the eye," he explained. "You're going to have to get an injection of blood."

The next few minutes passed in a blur of events; injecting blood from who knows what animal or hollow, wrapping the area where my injuries used to be in gauze wrap and telling me to take it a bit easier (something I wasn't going to heed). Auria stayed by my side, silent as a mouse. It wasn't until we left that she spoke up.

"Have you gotten used to it?" she asked as we walked side by side. I turned my head towards her and raised an eyebrow in question. "The injuries, I mean. Have you gotten used to the pain?"

I shrugged. "After you get wounded a lot—or after you get into battle—it doesn't matter anymore. For me it was a bit of both, but being who I am the aspect of a battle always distracts me."

"I hate fighting," she replied. "It always makes me feel like I'm doing some sort of evil…"

"You're just like that," I smirked and snaked my hand around her hip. She stiffened up a bit but leaned into me. "You don't have to worry about that, you're probably not going to be fighting. Aizen's only interested in using people who he thinks are powerful."

"Biased, much?"

"It's true," I deadpanned. "When have you ever seen him treat us as equals regarding our ranks? Knowing him he's only going to take two or three of the Espada with him to the human world when the war actually breaks out."

"Is there really going to be a war?" she said scornfully. "There aren't that many of us."

We were silent until I stopped walking and she turned to face me, her fingers tracing the scar on my chest from Kurosaki's attack. I'd get him back for that, get him back and much more.

"I don't want you to die because of Lord Aizen's ambitions," she murmured and leaned into me. I sighed and held her; a few moments later she said that she had to go and I kissed her before she left, making me want to go with her. She had an aura that pulled me to her like opposite sides of a magnet.

I walked around some more, not knowing what to do. Aizen hadn't had a meeting in a while, which was surprising with the fact that he just loved having them every time he wanted to waste some of our time, leaving me with some free time that I didn't know how to use.

While I was so deep in thought I didn't notice the body on the floor of the hallway until I almost tripped over it.

"Ngh…wha…Grimmjow?" a familiar voice mumbled.

_Alexia? What in the hell…?_

"What're you doing out here?" I asked incredulously and scooped her up in my arms. She didn't object and got comfortable instead.

"Prob'ly just another sleep attack," she continued to mumble, her head nodding as she tried to fight the urge to sleep again. Hearing her randomly falling asleep like that made the protective side of me come out.

"If you fall asleep somewhere like that all of a sudden someone might—"

"I can't control it," she yawned, "even if I wanted to. Sorry to disappoint you."

Sighing, I came to her room and kicked the door open, unceremoniously dumping her on the bed and making her give a small yelp. "At least give a warning…ah, wait!"

"I'm not going anywhere," I rolled my eyes. "What do you want?"

"I want to go see Feka," she said and forced herself to get up. "I haven't seen her in a while and I don't know if her health is any better than it was before."

"…Who are you talking about?"

She weakly punched my shoulder with furrowed eyebrows. "My snat."

"That cat-snake thing that hates me?"

"Mhmm…"

"Shit if I want to see her," I laughed but got my ear pulled on by Alexia and grunted loudly at the sudden and annoying aggression. "Lemme go, that hurts!"

"At this point I don't care if you want to even hear about her; I want to see how she's doing so take me to Szayel's lab so I can see her, preferably within the next few minutes, please."

I would've lost it by then if she hadn't said please.

"Fine," I growled and offered my hand, but she was already up and at the door. Was she sleepy or turning bipolar? One second she was a freaking sloth and now she was a chipmunk pumped up on an espresso.

"You're too slow," she grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me outside, shutting the door behind her and practically running down the hallways. She yelled over her shoulder, "Where do I turn?!"

"Left," I lazily called out.

"What?!" she slowed down a bit. This time I completely ignored her and sonidoed next to her, making her jolt and nearly trip and fall. "Bastard…"

"Don't get so excited," I scoffed and walked off. She reluctantly followed and didn't say a word this time, keeping her urge to go glomp her cat under control.

We finally reached the lab after what seemed like eternity and this time had to wait a few minutes to gain access inside. Szayel was doing some sort of experiment, he told us, and advised us to be careful while he carried it out.

"Can I see Feka?" Alexia asked in a hopeful tone of voice.

Szayel hesitated for a second, thinking about it and inspecting her facial expression. "I'm not sure if you'll be satisfied, but yes, you may. She's in the same place as always. Maybe having you visit her will be beneficial."

Alexia's eyebrows furrowed in confusion but nodded, beckoning me with her. For some unknown reason I followed her.

The cat/snake/whatever-it-was looked like it was…dying. Of course, I didn't say that out loud for Alexia's sake but that was the only thought going through my head. It was laying on its side, none of its body moving except for the occasional fast rise and fall of its chest. Sensing Alexia's presence, its tail suddenly started to shake and pointed towards her.

"Feka," Alexia cooed and tapped the glass separating her from the animal. Its ears perked up and twitched, its senses starting to focus in as Alexia called to it. "She's so…she looks so weak…"

I sighed. "Since when was she acting like this?"

"I gave her back to Szayel a few weeks ago," she shook her head, "but she wasn't like this. She was still active and alive."

"And I thought I was the only one who thought she was dead-looking."

"Grimmjow!" she smacked my arm and I scoffed at her helpless face. "Don't say things like that…"

"How did she get like this in the first place?" I asked.

"That's what I'd like to know…"

I'd had enough of her sulking and got up from my crouching position, twisting my torso to crack my back before leaving her.

"Where are you going?"

"Away from your depressed ass."

"Shut up."

I rolled my eyes and turned a small corridor, seeking out my favorite feline.

**'You're seeing her again?'**

_Jealous?_

**'More like freaked. Do you have a fetish for cats?'**

_If that was true then I would've been ogling Alexia's cat creature._

**'Eh. That's not an authentic member of the cat family, so that's probably why.'**

_You just love contradicting me._

"Yo," I greeted the panther which currently had its back to me. "You throwin' some type of bitch fit?" It growled softly in response and I snickered. "Or is Szayel treating you like one of his test subjects? If he is tell me so I can kick his ass for it."

The panther finally turned around and looked me in the eyes, it's fangs showing in a feral growl directed at me. It was the first time that it'd ever shown hostility to me; even if before this it was lazy and ignorant, threatening me was something new.

"You alright?" I asked, sitting on the floor. It continued to growl lowly at me but after a few minutes stopped, finally. The panther was pretty much bipolar today—next thing I knew it was rubbing up against the glass it was confined in and purring. "The hell's with you?"

"With who?" Szayel appeared behind me suddenly and I jolted a bit. The panther saw him and bared her razor-sharp fangs in anything but a friendly greeting. "She never ceases to hate me."

"Maybe you should make a place for her that she'll actually like," I suggested harshly. "You have her in this glass box like some sort of creation of yours. Didn't you just find her, not create her?"

"Although that is true, for that plain reason is why she is here," he replied in an all-knowing tone I didn't like. "If not for me she would have been killed by hollows, and I do not have immense files on her statistics so I can't have her roaming around in an environment she may not be accustomed to. In the years that I have had her she also has not been through heat, further arousing my suspicions on what type of hollow she is."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," I sighed and got up, tapping the glass separating the panther and I. "You think she can fight in the war? She'd make a pretty cool accessory."

"Like Yammy's fracciòn?"

I had no idea what he was talking about. "Yammy has fracciòn?"

"Yes," Szayel said in a didn't-you-know tone. "A dog."

I nearly burst out laughing but instead grinned like the maniac I was. "The only people he managed to convince to become his fracciòn was a dog? Goes to show how powerful he is."

Szayel raised an eyebrow. "Let me remind you that—"

"I know what you're gonna say and I don't give a shit," I interrupted before he could tell me what he was going to say, probably something about how that the person I was talking about was the same person who'd injured me today. But to me it didn't count; the fucker had caught me by surprise when I was attacking someone else. People like that were just weak. I wouldn't let something like that happen to me again, anyways.

"Alexia's at the exit," he informed me. "Don't keep her waiting too long."

"Yeah."

Despite him telling me to get back to her quickly, I spent another few minutes there, trying to figure out why my panther was being so hostile now (don't you dare laugh—yeah, it's my panther, so what?). Alexia was nodding off when I finally left and went to her. Poking her in the middle of her forehead, she jolted and immediately swatted my hand away. "The hell was that for?"

"So I wouldn't have to carry your lazy ass," I scoffed and walked towards the door leading out of the lab. "Are you coming or not?"

Nodding, she yawned and followed me. I didn't know where exactly I was supposed to take her (not to mention that it looked like she was going to drop like a dead weight any second) so I decided to just leave her back at her room.

"Where are we going?" she mumbled as she rubbed her eyes.

"Your room," I replied. "You need to sleep on an actual piece of furniture instead of the floor this time."

"Shuddup…"

As soon as we reached her room, she swung the door open and didn't bother to stop it from slamming into the wall of her room. My original plan was just to leave her there, but apparently she had other plans. Dragging me inside her room, she sighed and locked the door behind us, then—started lifting up the mattress of her bed?

What the hell was she doing?

"Don't just stand there, you dumbass," she scolded me with a strained voice as she struggled to push the mattress up. "Help me…!"

"Why?"

"JUST DO IT BEFORE THE DAMM THING FALLS ON ME!" she exclaimed as her foot slipped and she let out a yelp. "You have one fucking job, Grimmjow, one damn job."

Rolling my eyes, I lifted the mattress up and off of her arms with my arm. My actions made her scoff.

"Showoff."

"What else do you take me for?" I answered. Then again, it wasn't like I had another arm to use. She sighed once again and got something that was hidden under the mattress…

Books. She had books stuffed under her mattress.

Since when was she this much of a crazy bitch?

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked skeptically. "What's with the books?"

"I need to show you something," she shrugged and finished getting the books she needed. "You can put down the mattress now."

Doing as she said, I sat on the mattress once it was set back in place again and stared at Alexia as she flipped through the books she'd gotten. They were comics of some kind, but for some strange reason she was reading it from right to left. She was becoming crazier by the minute.

Her hands lingered on a certain page of the book she was reading and, hesitating for only a second, handed it to me with the page bookmarked. "Look at the pictures. What do you see happening?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"I'm being serious, the least you could do is answer me," an angry tick appeared above her head.

"She says to the person who saved her from being kidnapped, helped her lift a stupid mattress that weighed no more than ten pounds and—"

"Shut it, Grimmjow!"

I snickered but complied to her request, looking at the pages being shown to me. My eyes widened when I saw people drawn on the pages. People I knew. "Did you draw these?"

She shook her head slowly. "Someone else did."

That didn't make any sense. How could someone draw the espada in such detail, with the fact that the person who'd drawn it didn't know us? "Where the hell did you find something like this?"

"They're books that were being published," she explained bluntly and gave me a look when she knew I was going to interrupt, one that said 'I know what you're going to ask, but shut up'. "The author knows everything about what's happened and what's going to happen. I have no idea how, but he does…"

She gave me a book that had me in the cover. In resurreccion. _How the hell…?!_

"They know about my resurreccion?!" I nearly ripped the book in half. It wasn't that I didn't want anybody to know, but my resurreccion was somewhat of an element of surprise. It definitely wasn't a surprise now that probably millions of people had seen the cover of this book. She gave me another one that also had me on the cover, just not in resurreccion. Even though I knew it would anger me further, I flipped through each page (following Alexia's instructions on which way I was supposed to read—weren't books supposed to go from left to right?) and saw myself…fighting Ichigo. This was the first time I'd gone to the human world, when all my fracciones had died off while I kicked Kurosaki's ass.

That kid got beat up pretty badly.

Then again, it was me who was beating him up.

"Grimmjow, I'm not sure you're supposed to be grinning about this," Alexia sweat dropped at my amused expression and I scoffed.

"I actually might like the guy who made these books."

She got another book with—

"Why the hell is that bastard on the cover?" I hissed, glaring at the book as if any second now Luppi would jump out of the cover. Actually, I wished he would so I could kill him here and now. Alexia rolled her eyes and showed me a page.

In which Kurosaki was kicking my ass.

"Okay, I hate the bastard who made these books."

She laughed a bit and I glared at her. "This author is on Ichigo's side, by the way."

"So then who the hell is on our side?!"

"He's the one who created the books in the first place so there's really no other side to it," she deadpanned, then inched away upon seeing my pissed off aura. "Then again, people write stories where it ends up different."

"And in those stories Kurosaki doesn't get an inch near me, does he?"

She stayed silent, but her expression told me she wanted to laugh.

"What?"

"…Nothing."

"Tell me," I grinned angrily.

"Well…let's just say that some people have their different views on your relationship with Ichigo."

I didn't really know what she meant by that but I nodded as if I did.

"So this is why you know all this stuff about us?" I said and held up a book. She nodded. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Knowing you, you'd probably tell me I was going crazy. Either that or just deny it. Besides, telling someone wouldn't necessarily change anything. In your next fight, after that one where Ichigo sort of hands your ass to you…"

I listened intently but she didn't look too eager on telling me. "What?"

"Well, you fight Ichigo here in Hueco Mundo and then…"

"Do I die?"

She had a conflicted expression. "The books never clear it up, but from the looks of it you're still alive, but barely. There's so many things that happen and I don't want them to happen, but the thing is that if I prevent something or change it, it could affect other events and the overall outcome—or I could make no effect whatsoever and not stop anything. I don't know which is worse."

Her news about my state after fighting Kurosaki for the last time disturbed me. The guy wasn't strong at all. What could happen over the span of a month that would suddenly make him strong enough to wound me?

"So what are you planning to do?" I asked. She refused to meet my eyes. "You haven't thought of anything, have you?"

"Well, I've been training but beyond the skills that I have and my knowledge, I don't see what big impact I can make. Plus, I'm going to have to destroy these books."

"Why?"

"I can't let Aizen find them or else we're doomed. Grimmjow, you're completely right about Aizen being a deceiving bastard, you know. Even talking about it gives me a chill, because I don't know if he has this room bugged or something, listening to everything we say. If he is then we're already screwed."

I sighed. Alexia thought a lot about things that didn't require much thought. "Well, you just keep training. If Aizen's heard the conversation then you need to destroy the books right now. And anything can make an impact when you say that one change of events can decide the outcome of the war. What happens to Ulquiorra?"

She glanced at me, fear in her eyes, and then looked away. It was enough of an indication for me.

"If he dies in a fight then you just need to prevent him from fighting," I said, getting up from the bed and stretching until I heard a satisfying crack. "And stop worrying about it. Maybe you're thinking too hard about this and the answer is actually right in front of your face." To prove my point, I waved my hand in front of her face and almost smacked her, but she slapped my hand away (probably knowing what I was trying to do) with a small smile.

"Let's hope so," she murmured and blinked a few times, a yawn breaking away and letting me know she was about to drop like a brick. Again. It was like she was starting to go into hibernation. I left the room with a lazy wave over my shoulder and walked back to my room, no one in the hallways. Was it already so late into the day that some of the arrancars were already going to sleep?

My room was deathly silent as I walked into it, but that silence was soon filled up by the soft humming and eventually melody of a voice I could recognize from a mile away. Lowering my spiritual pressure, I walked silently to my drawers and shrugged off my vest. I rarely ever cared to put on any type of sleepwear we had. But as I opened the drawer that held said sleepwear my brows furrowed in confusion. There weren't any in my drawers even though I'd had perfectly clean ones that I'd thought of wearing yesterday. Shrugging and lazily folding back the covers of my bed, I let myself fall onto it and drift off to the sound of that voice.

Almost.

I was about to go to sleep when I felt something next to me and tiredly turned to see a wet mop of blond hair and a smiling face.

"You look like…the grudge that cut her hair and dyed it blond…"

She laughed for about a second before smacking my forehead, making me let out an amused huff. "I took a shower."

"I heard you singing." She blushed a bit. "What, did you think that you were being quiet?"

"I wish, now that you've told me."

"It's not like you're a bad singer," I scoffed and wrapped my arms around her waist. "I don't know why you wanted to be a nurse instead of a singer."

"Because…I don't know," she sighed and buried her face in my chest. She smelled like roses, for some weird reason, but I wasn't complaining. "You really think I would've had a chance if I tried to be a singer? That kind of career is more of a gamble."

"I thought you liked taking chances," I murmured, treading a hand through her damp hair. "You were always the lucky one when it came to games, weren't you?"

"Yeah, but something like that is obviously different."

I felt her arms tentatively wrap around me; I leaned down and lifted her chin to press my lips against hers. She sighed, tilting her head to the side and closed her neon green eyes. We parted a few seconds later and she turned with her back to me so I could spoon her body to mine. She was falling asleep quickly and within moments she was softly snoring. Once she wasn't aware of her surroundings, I pressed a kiss to her neck that would've had her jumping away from me and settled my chin on her shoulder. For some reason, I felt as if she was being distant with me. Like it wasn't Auria who was laying with me. But that wasn't possible.

I disregarded my thoughts and let myself fall into slumber. I'd deal with my stupid thoughts later.

**[Eight]**

Unbr0ken: WE'RE BACK :D

Grimmjow: T_T…

Alexia: So, Grimmjow…

Grimmjow: No.

Me: No, you're not going to answer our question or no, you're not sure you're straight?

Grimmjow: -_- No.

Alexia: Stop being like that -.-

Grimmjow: No T_T

Unbr0ken: Hey Grimm, why are you being such a pussy? Are you scared?

Grimmjow: No -.-

Unbr0ken: Are you going to give us an answer?

Grimmjow: No (Puts in earplugs and stares for next question)

Unbr0ken: T_T Are you straight?

Grimmjow: (Narrows eyes) No…

Alexia: (Starts laughing, making Grimmjow take off his earplugs)

Grimmjow: What did he ask?

Me: If you were straight :)

Grimmjow: O_O Ah, I mean…

Unbr0ken: ;-; You mean you don't love me?

Grimmjow: -_-' It's not that either.

Unbr0ken: Stop confusing me T-T

Me: Goddammit, Grimmjow, you made him cry!

Alexia: What a despicable man -.- (Obviously exaggerating)

Grimmjow: You guys are pissing me off (Reluctantly hugs Unbr0ken)

Unbr0ken: You know, when you hug someone you should wrap your arms around their shoulders, not their waist…

Grimmjow: (Quickly moves arms to Unbr0ken's shoulders)•-•

Me: So…

Alexia: Your fangirl is showing up, isn't it T_T

Me: No -/./-

Unbr0ken: But mine is…

Alexia and I: What?!

Alexia: You have a fanboy side?!

Unbr0ken: (Nods)

Me: To be…continued?

Alexia: Wait, but—

Grimmjow: What the hell's a fanboy?

Unbr0ken: You'll find out soon… •w•

Grimmjow: Oh god O_O

Song of the week: Mirotic by TVXQ


	32. Realization and Hesitation

Me: (Panicking) H-hey, guys.

Grimmjow: He needs to calm down…

Unbr0ken: OWWO

Alexia: O.O He's going to kill us.

Ulquiorra: Why is he in such a state?

Unbr0ken: RAWR!

Me: Um…

Alexia: I knew that he could fanboy at times but I didn't know it was this scary o_o'

Grimmjow: Fanboy?

Me: Yeah, well, Jay and I occasionally role play with each other so I guess he feels like he's deprived of it right now?

Unbr0ken: RAAAAWR •WWW•

Alexia: T_T You two role play?

Me: Yeah ^_^ It helps with writing quality, I think.

Unbr0ken: RAAAAAWR!

Ulquiorra: (Leaves)

Alexia: W-wait…! (Follows)

Grimmjow: God, how long does he stay like this -.-

Me: Well, it varies on what day it is… (Whispers in Grimmjow's ear)

Grimmjow: No -.-

Me: Yeah :D

Unbr0ken: -w-

Grimmjow: He's calming do—

Unbr0ken: RAAAAAAAAWR!

Me: (Covers ears) Are you sure…

Grimmjow: I can't believe you, Arekushia…

Me: (Pushes Grimmjow in Unbr0ken's direction) I can :D

Grimmjow: -.- (Slowly steps forward)

Unbr0ken: •w•?

Grimmjow: (Lifts up Unbr0ken's chin but shakes head and decides to embrace him instead) There -_- Back to normal?

Unbr0ken: OwO+++

Me: •-• Nope…

Grimmjow: Then what the hell is going to make him go back to normal?!

**OCTOBER SECOND, PART ONE**

_**I was in my original form, in my room. I did not know how many hours I'd spent laying in the bathtub but I continued to lay there, letting my body soak.**_

_** What had I done?**_

_** Finally deciding to step out of the tub, I took a towel and dried my body before getting a new set of clothes. It wouldn't be long before I'd have to sleep, so I only put on my hakama and left my jacket folded on my dresser for when I woke up. My damp hair wet the pillow I laid my head on and I let out a sigh. This day had held many unexpected events; not all of them were positive.**_

_** Why had I let myself slip? I'd gone into resurreccion—my segunda etapa. Something I had kept hidden from everyone and everything. Until now. From Alexia's personality and character, I knew she would not tell anyone, but there was still the possibility of letting the information slip by accident.**_

_'She's troublesome, isn't she?'_

** …**

_'You aren't denying it,'** I heard him snicker.**_

**She is not troublesome.**

_'What is she, then?'_

_** I refused to answer his voice. The feeling of drifting into slumber never came to me and I grew slightly exasperated. He never ceased to make remarks on Alexia and my lackadaisical attitude as of late, and continued to do so at this moment.**_

**Stop talking_, I thought when I had had enough._**

_'You can't make me,'** he replied with a mocking tone. '**You can't run away. There is no safe place for you. Who do you think you are?'_

** I am your opposite. I am the one in control.**

_ 'That's what you'd like to think. You were never stronger than me, ever since the start. I knew you'd be a hindrance to me.'_

_** Shutting my eyes, I tried to ignore his remarks for a while longer but failed to do so moments later.**_

_ 'She's trash, isn't she? If it was up to you, she would have been dead since long ago.'_

_** Using force, I blocked him from my mind and shut all my emotions down completely. In logical and statistical terms, what was Alexia to me and what did I treat her as?**_

_** A friend. A good friend. A person I had confided in more than anyone else in my life. Someone who made me contradict my own morals and aspects. There has to be nothing. That is all there is.**_

** Is she nothing?**

** No.**

** Is she my reason, my purpose?**

** No…?**

_'You wish she was dead. Dead and gone, so you wouldn't have to deal with her—'_

**You're wrong.**

_** My own mental voice sounded immensely stronger than previously before, but also brought on a wave of pain to my head.**_

_'So what the hell are you saying? That you actually like her? That you love her? That's impossible and you know damn well I'm telling the truth.'_

**_ My teeth clenched and I closed my eyes. _That is not for you to decide.**

_ 'Given who I am, it is. If I tell you to kill her, you will kill her. You can't resist me.'_

**You won't kill her.**

_** My tone of voice was firm, but also frail and weak at the same time. I love her? What is love? Is it vulnerability? Trust? Concern? All of these combined? I did not know how to define the forbidden word which accompanied the dreaded word: heart. Love. Said together so many times by incompetent humans, with their illusions of the reality before them. Illusions I had stupidly believed before I had died. Now I knew not to trust anyone. I knew, yet…I had let myself slip before Alexia. Was this the same disease that had been my undoing? Was 'love' going to be the end of me for the second time? Love, something that felt like everything but was nothing in reality?**_

_ 'She'll be the end of you,' **he read my mind. **'So what are you going to do about it?'_

_** The pain I felt at my conflicted mind was too much and I used my remaining force to block him out of my mind for as long as I could. Thinking of all these problems was meaningless, therefore I should not have been thinking of them. I would not.**_

_ …A dream?_

The environment around me was disorienting as my eyes slowly opened. I was…sleeping on my side. It was the first time that it had happened and the feeling was somewhat unwelcome. As I propped myself up I encountered a minor pain in my head and gave a small sigh, running a hand through my hair and touching the source of my pain, my left temple. Although it only worsened my headache, I forced myself to my feet and walked to the washroom, opening the cabinet that also served as a mirror and looking through to find pills. When I found none I resorted to washing my face with purely cold water to further awaken me and to concentrate on the task of finding a true remedy to the aches I felt. With the time passing, the pain only got worse and I found myself getting exasperated. The exasperation grew and I realized what was occurring a bit late.

The minor pain turned into a pounding one and I heard his low chuckle. **'Letting your guard down after a dream like that? You've gotten careless.'** My hands struggled to maintain control of them and I only barely managed to grab my other medications off of their spot in the bathroom cabinet and take four of them, twice of what I was supposed to take. Thanks to Szayelaporro's advanced technology and methods, the pills began to activate their effects almost instantaneously. He huffed in annoyance.** 'You're growing dependent on these, aren't you?'** In the midst of my pain calming down, it started to pound again for a short while before eventually subsiding completely, leaving me breathing harshly and fighting to keep my consciousness.** 'I can outdo your stupid medications,'** he said angrily and sent another shot of blinding pain into me. **'They cannot protect you.'**

_Quiet._

His punishment made my knees buckle under the pressure and I fell to the floor. That is where I came up with a temporary plan. In the small closet connected to the bathroom, I could see something pressing against the door and immediately recognized it as my marioneta. The pain increased to deathly levels as I pulled myself up and opened the door with shaking hands. There was no proper entrance into my faux body as I simply let myself fall into it. Immediately, the feeling of being pushed and cramped into a shell momentarily overtook the pain I was feeling and I welcomed it. **'Tch. You think you can escape me by hiding in this weak body? I am your destined fate, Ulquiorra. You may think that you can escape me, but if I change myself just a bit I can get past this supposed barrier of yours. I am a virus to you, and one you will never be able to overcome.'**

With that, he vanished from my mind.

My breathing was labored and I couldn't see clearly at first. After a few moments of recovering my breath with closed eyes, I returned to my normal state and stood, looking at myself in the mirror of the bathroom cabinet. There were no signs of any physical damage done to me, thankfully. Sighing, I patted the clothing I was wearing—dark grey pants with a light blue shirt, and an unzippered sweater with a hood. Where had I gotten this from? Perhaps Szayelaporro had changed it without my knowing. Looking down at my feet, I saw that I was wearing the same shoes as before, 'converse' as Alexia called them. Why was I inspecting myself like this? Today…what was there to do today?

Ah. It was another day to go to the world of the living. I wondered if Alexia was already awake, and as I asked myself that I looked over at the clock set in my room. 11:38. It was a bit late but I cared less. All I knew was that I had just overcome an attack by my other self; that in itself was slightly surprising. I had never been able to stop him before unless it was with Szayelaporro's help. _Stop thinking of him_, I thought. _Thinking of him will provoke him._

I spent only a moment or two in my quarters before deciding to leave. Leaving the room, I was greeted by the sight of someone waiting for me.

"Good morning," Alexia smiled, turning to face me. I remained silent and she raised an eyebrow. "Hey, don't you remember me?"

"Of course," I said and put my hands in the pockets of the pants I was wearing. I took a moment to inspect her; she was wearing a long red shirt in ruffled layers, with black pants and a black leather jacket that stopped at her mid-torso. She met my observant eyes and raised an eyebrow in question instead of becoming flustered under my gaze. Had something happened to her?

The answer was obvious. Showing her my segunda etapa was, to her, a demonstration of my trust to her. Because of that she now thought that she could be more comfortable around me, something that I did not care for—but could become troublesome if she went too far. I was determined not to let _him_ gain control.

"What're you thinking about?" she asked, now standing by my side. "Did something happen? You look a bit spooked or something."

I stared into her eyes. How had she come to know me so well?

"Nothing is wrong," I said, expecting her to ask again. When she didn't—instead shaking her head and sighing before walking ahead of me—her actions confused me. She was being strangely straightforward. Given the circumstances, this made it capable for me to test her. Test a hypothesis of sorts. I would find why she claimed to love me and observe her in order to find out what love looked like. It was the only way to get an accurate answer to my questions; and who better to study than a human?

_I will test her._

"Ulquiorra~," she called out in tune, "you keep spacing out."

In silence, I followed her, only speaking up once to ask if she knew where she was going, my answer a curt nod. Her spirits also seemed lifted today. After a few moments she began to talk to me instead.

"How'd you sleep?"

"…What are we going to do, woman?" I evaded her question with a different one. Looking over her shoulders, I saw her brows furrow but not ask why I was avoiding her subject.

"How about you choose?"

"Where are we going, woman?"

"Wherever you'd like, Ulquiorra." Her answers were beginning to confuse me. She wanted me to choose where to go? I knew nearly nothing about the places in the World of the Living. There was no reason to ask me such questions. She suddenly turned and looked me in the eye with a serious expression. "What do you want, Ulquiorra?"

Her question was unrestrained and unexpected, leaving me to only stare as I pondered the depth of her question. What did I want? She wanted me to choose? The only reason I went on these trips was to supervise her.

I remained silent until I saw the entrance to the lab. She had abandoned staring at me and kept walking, saving us some time. From her actions after asking me her question, it seemed that in all seriousness, she wanted an answer from me.

Where did I want to go?

Why did it matter?

I recalled her words from weeks ago. 'I'll take you to London next time. It's where I grew up.' Her exact words were lost to my memory but what she had said was something along those lines. "London," I said. "You said you would show me where you grew up and lived most of your life, did you not?"

She sighed. "Yeah."

At the moment of her reply, the door opened to reveal Szayelaporro, a mildly grim look on his face; with his index finger he beckoned Alexia to his side and Alexia portrayed the confusion on her visage as she picked up her pace and greeted Szayelaporro. He said something to her which I could not hear and panic flashed in Alexia's eyes. Whatever little curiosity I had was piqued by their conversation and I walked over to them both in order to hear more. Apparently, by the time I reached them they were done talking, Szayelaporro opening the door to his lab with us following. Alexia's mind was preoccupied with what Granz had told her and I let out a small sigh.

"What is wrong?" I asked, and she seemed to snap out of her stupor long enough to recognize the question I'd asked her.

"It's Feka," she said with a somber tone of voice. "The snat, remember?"

I remembered it well. The day I had found the creature in my room and attempted to apprehend it, with no success possible. The only outcome had been the cluttered mess of my room that had been created in the process. I knew that Alexia was emotionally attached to the creature, but did not know that it was to this extent—affecting her this much. "What is happening to the creature?"

"It's sick, really ill," she fiddled with her hands and stared at them. "I don't know what caused it but she's only been getting worse ever since I gave her back to Szayel to take better care of her than I had."

I remained silent. The matter seemed too trivial for Alexia to be moved by it, by my logic.

"Here," Szayelaporro appeared with a black, scaly bundle in his arms that occasionally twitched or moved slowly. "She's awake right now, but try not to panic her seeing as how she is very sensitive to rough behavior at the moment."

Alexia nodded, held out her arms tentatively, and Szayelaporro transferred the creature carefully into them. Once in her embrace, Alexia held the creature to her, a finger caressing the area around its ears which were flat against its head. It looked lifeless and for a brief moment I had assumed that it was already dead; but its tail occasionally flickered, signaling that it was alive. Alexia walked to the lounge and sat down carefully, crossing her legs and holding the creature to her, similarly how a mother would her child. she murmured words to the animal, too quiet for Szayelaporro and I to hear.

"You already know the drill," Szayelaporro turned to me. "Once you are ready you may leave. As it is…I don't know if she wants to go anywhere at this point."

I nodded and he left. Once again, my gaze shifted to Alexia and I joined her on the lounge. Out of the corner of her eyes, she spared a moment to glance at me. Her eyes displayed worry, sadness, and another thing I couldn't quite identify. "Sorry," she murmured, turning back to the animal. "I'm wasting your time."

I remained silent. After a few minutes she sighed and got up, going to the animal's display case. Setting the creature down, she stayed silent and still for another amount of time and I was compelled to ask.

"Are you still intending to visit the World of the Living?" I inquired. As if shocked out of a trance, she jolted and looked at me over her shoulder. Despite the obvious evidence that she was unsettled, she nodded firmly and got the globe off of the table. I opened a garganta and she neared it, touching the globe. All of this was part of a programmed routine we had adapted to subconsciously. She set the globe down and started to go through the garganta.

_Phase one._

"Alexia," I called her by name to catch her attention and, as I thought, she had an expression of mild surprise as she turned to me and asked what was wrong. Leaving her question unanswered, I walked up to her and took her hand in mine, intertwining our fingers and holding them in place firmly.

"Ulquiorra…?" she asked, her head tilting to the side. I stared into her eyes, still silent and she looked down at our hands. A few moments afterward her own grip on my hand increased. "Why are you doing this?"

Silence responded again and she grew exasperated, pulling me through the garganta with her before it was I who could do it.

I expected there to be immense noise and humans within eyesight at all times, but I was not expecting to see hills, green hills with one empty road. An isolated atmosphere enveloped the scene.

"I guess going to places like these is good, too," Alexia loosened her grip on my hand but I continued to hold hers. Her skin was slightly cold but soft and I felt something from touching her hand like this. A pleasant feeling I did not wholeheartedly welcome. Comfort?

I chose not to think of what I felt and focused on my actions in replacement of those feelings. I started by letting go of her hand. She raised an eyebrow in question but did not say anything and walked into the long green grass. The atmosphere was physically pleasant, not cold nor immensely warm. Taking my eyes off of her for a second, I turned in a circle. The harsh light of the sun met me and I squinted my eyes, adjusting to the brightness. When I turned back to where Alexia had been I discovered that she was not there. "Woman."

No answer.

Sighing, I took a few steps forward, venturing into the tall plants concealing the majority of my legs. She was nowhere in sight, and if she was then she was being deathly still.

"Woman."

I looked to my left and right, all around me. By the time I had turned in a complete circle I was determined to leave without her but felt a tug on my feet. Losing my balance temporarily, my knees buckled and I feel onto them, my palms shooting out to catch myself before my visage could also collide with the ground.

Her laughter erupted from the ground, next to me. She was hidden in the grass.

"Got you!" she laughed and sat up. Her long hair was lifted into the air and over her head at a harsh gust of wind, leaving her disheveled. "Oh, this's just great." Her shoulders shook in silent laughter as she gathered her hair and threw it back over her shoulders. All traces of the worried and concerned expression she had were gone, replaced by a free-spirited one. The change was so sudden that for a few moments all I could do was watch her.

"…"

"Hey, are you okay, Ulqui-cielago?"

I nodded and got up whilst she remained on the ground, sprawled out on the ground and gazing up at the clear blue sky. "Woman, are we going to remain here for the rest of the day?"

"Hm? I thought that you'd like a quiet place like this."

Did I find it appealing, likable? It was silent and void of many presences, ignoring mine and Alexia's. I suppose it was less bothersome than the populated and noisy places Alexia preferred to go to. "I suppose."

She sighed loudly as she stood up, lazily patting down her clothes to clean some of the dirt that had gotten on them. "Let's go down that path, I'm pretty sure it'll lead to the outskirts of London and then we can make our way in. Sorry for having to make you walk."

We both made our way out of the grass and walked along the roadside. Every few minutes or so a vehicle would drive past us. "Did humans invent those?"

"Invent what? Cars?"

"Yes."

"It was a long time ago, but yeah, cars were made in the early 1900's, I want to say? Of course, they didn't look anything like they do now. It just goes to show how creative humans can be sometimes."

Sometimes?

"Do you not have much confidence in your race?" I asked, now intrigued by her words.

"Sometimes we make good decisions, sometimes the things we do make you want to invent a time machine and go back in time to fix it. It's just that the choices we make right now are the ones that we can't see. We can't tell if they're good choices or bad ones—it scares me. Knowing that one choice can change the course of several other things in the future…"

"Are you speaking of the war?"

Her steps faltered. "I…I got carried away, just forget what I said."

We got to the top of a larger hill and were greeted to the sight of a small neighborhood that led off to a larger town, and eventually a city. A large tower with an old clock rang out twice and I read it—2:00.

"It's later than I thought…!" Alexia's eyes widened and her pace quickened down the road; I followed and soon we walked among a path of quaint, small houses where few people were settled. A group of children drew on the asphalt with large pieces of white rock and I stared at them while we walked by. Some of them did not acknowledge my presence and others became uncomfortable or even scared under my gaze.

"Over there," Alexia pointed in the near distance where a large red vehicle was driving on a busy road. "We can take the bus into the main part of London. Do you want to?"

I did not answer her question.

Sighing, she took a hold of my wrist and attempted to pull me with her. All she could accomplish was wasting her energy by trying to make me move, as I continued to walk in the direction she was pulling me without any increased pace.

The vehicle was larger than most and in its seats sat a large group of people being driven by a single person commanding the vehicle that Alexia explained was a 'bus'. The driver's voice could be heard to the people even from this distance.

"Come," she said and this time I allowed her to tug me along as we neared the bus. Several humans' stares were directed at us as we boarded the vehicle. Alexia gave an amount of money to the driver, who nodded and permitted us to pass. A cold atmosphere relieved us from the dry warmth of the environment as we stepped into the section of the bus where its passengers were seated. The bus was nearly completely occupied; some humans were even standing next to the seated ones albeit some seats were available. We both found two untaken seats which were separated from each other. The seat I was at was situated by an open window whilst Alexia was a row ahead and had a seat on the edge of the aisle of the bus. She sent a worried glance my way and turned forward immediately afterwards once seeing that I was staring at her and drummed the tips of her fingers on her thighs, a manifestation of her impatience. Her impatience to leave was relieved slightly when the driver commenced his control of the vehicle and drove away from where we had once been.

As the driver continued to speak, I noticed small screens suspended on the ceiling of the bus which showed humans speaking of events in the world, eventually coming to speak of the climate. It centralized on where we were, London, telling of temperatures and wind speeds and sunsets, as well as sunrises. Something which did not exist in Hueco Mundo. For a brief moment I wondered what a sunset looked like but forgot the notion as soon as I thought of it. Much of my thoughts had consisted of comparing the World of the Living to Hueco Mundo—there was nothing to compare it for, though. It was useless. So why did I continue to compare and contrast?

_'Today seems like a relatively humid day, and the temperature will generally stay at a constant seventeen Celsius until later on tonight, which will include a forecast of possible thunderstorms and—' _

My thoughts were interrupted by the two girls sitting next to me. They both looked to be Alexia's age, maybe a bit younger. The farther one wore her blonde hair with blue streaks in a braid over her shoulder. Her eyes were a bright lavender, which I found to be odd. She pointed to her eye and I heard a bit of her conversation. As I thought, she was wearing a contraption that changed her eye color. Her eyes then shifted to me and her lips turned up slightly. A smile. But not a genuine one. It reminded me of _her_.

The woman leaned over and, not breaking eye contact with me, whispered something in the ear of the girl next to her. I heard her whine of protest, followed by the woman's urges to her and eventually threats. _Is this what humans qualify as friends? People who threaten you to do things for them?_

The girl slowly turned to face me and her face reddened considerably upon seeing my features. "H-hello…"

Her face was delicate yet strong, a soft and light peach color without blemishes. Her wide eyes were an electrifying mix of gray and blue and her wavy chin-length hair was shiny and pure ebony. Her lips were plump and rosy and her eyelashes were considerably long. All in all, many would consider her to be beautiful.

"What is it?" I asked.

She seemed to become a bit more flustered. "I-i was wondering if you came here alone…" Her voice held a certain accent that I'd heard Alexia use quite some time ago.

"You were wondering, or your acquaintance was?" I inquired with a stern tone of voice. I could see Alexia turning back to look at me with a worried expression. She positioned her index finger over her lips, an indication for me to lower my voice. I did not care.

"Eh?" the girl stared into my eyes. "Well, I guess you could say that we were both wondering…"

"Why?"

"B-because…," she stammered and looked over her shoulder for indication of what to say.

"Why do you simply follow her?" I asked. Perhaps I would get an answer to one of humans' strange mannerisms; blind obedience. "Her orders do not make sense but you choose to obey them, not knowing of the consequences or unwanted rewards. Do not bend to the will of trash." At the last word, I stared into the eyes of the other woman, who now had her eyes narrowed at me. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she let out an exasperated huff before letting herself lean back against the cushion of the seat we were situated at. My conversation had drawn the attention of a portion of the passengers on the bus and Alexia was nervously looking around. Her eyes widened once she saw something out of my range of view and abruptly rose from her seat.

"T-this's our stop!" she nearly exclaimed and reached out to me with outstretched hand. I raised an eyebrow and got up slowly. "Hurry or else we'll miss it, Ulquiorra!"

"So that's your name," the manipulative woman smiled. "It's been quite an…interesting time, Ulquiorra."

I gazed at the woman. "Trash."

With that single repeated word Alexia's expression became panicked and pale. In the span of a few seconds she hauled me to my feet as the vehicle ceased to move, and gave an apologetic glance to the two women.

As we exited the bus through the aisle, my eyes caught sight of a man and woman. The man's arm was settled around the waist to the woman, who was resting her head on the man's shoulder. As we passed them I saw both of their visages, content and relaxed.

I encountered the door of the bus and was compelled to take my eyes off of the couple and descend the steps to the ground. Alexia was waiting for me with a raised eyebrow.

_Phase two._

"Ulquiorra?" she asked with a confused expression as I neared her without a word. I stepped even closer and she took a cautionary step back. "What's wrong?" Without warning, my hand reached out and wound itself around her waist. Through the red, ruffled fabric, I felt the slight curve of the flesh at her waist, as if specifically made to be wound around. Her eyes widened phenomenally and she stood frozen in place as I looked her in the eyes. Then, just as the bus left us, I saw and felt the stares of several people and wound my other arm around her, bringing us closer together. She remained silent and stiff as I watched the vehicle retreat. The two women I had sat with also looked at us. The manipulative one glaring and the pleasant-looking one smiling and giving a small wave. Why was she being so amiable?

It took Alexia a bit of time to finally process what I was doing with her and she pushed herself away. "What…what was that for?"

For a moment I contemplated telling her my mental plans of investigating her feelings and actions towards me but immediately decided against it. If I recalled correctly, she would mostly likely be offended by the information and hurt. It—

Was this…consideration?

Due to these thoughts I remained silent. In defeat, Alexia sighed and began to walk off in the direction of a strange structure in the distance. It appeared to be a large wheel that rotated around a central point and had small capsules that carried humans in each one. It looked slightly familiar.

A person passed Alexia and I, riding a vehicle that seemed different from the other ones I'd seen. "Do you know how to ride a bicycle?" Alexia asked, linking her hands behind her back. When her head turned to look over her shoulder at me, I stared at her and she received my message. "It was a stupid question, wasn't it?"

"Unnecessary," I corrected and she turned forward once again, remaining silent for a while before making a strange remark.

"That girl that sat next to you," she murmured.

"What of her?"

"She was…beautiful. I mean, she was wearing a bit of makeup but even without it I could tell that she was gorgeous. It's amazing how such perfect people can be created sometimes."

"Perfect," I repeated. It was meant to be a question but sounded like a statement. "You assume she is a perfect being?"

"Kind, from what I saw," she shrugged as if trying to make the illusion that she was not bothered. "Her hair is shiny and curly, and definitely not a plain brown color." As she said that, Alexia gathered her hair and turned in a circle, then continued to walk in the former direction. "She has unique eyes, not the brown color that most humans have. She doesn't have lips that are too thin or thick. Her hands were perfectly sculpted, like porcelain."

"You were paying an immense amount of attention to her," I remarked and she raised an eyebrow.

"Weren't you?"

"Why would I? Because of her appearance?" I asked, mildly perplexed by her vain concern. "Even with her features, she is an idiot."

"Ulquiorra," she shook her head.

"Is it not true? She blindly followed the orders of who she assumed was someone she could trust but in reality the other woman only sought to use her and leave her once the girl was not needed anymore. Trash who blindly follow orders without suspicion are lower than the trash that use them for their own purposes."

Alexia's shoulders shook, confusing me. She turned around and she was smiling, but it was not a warm, genuine smile but one of resent and sadness. Sympathy. "Look who's talking."

I knew what that expression meant from hearing countless humans say it to one another. "How is my situation similar to that of the ignorant girl?"

"Aizen is the user. You, Ulquiorra Schiffer, are the one being used."

"You are saying that I am trash."

"Not necessarily," she rolled her eyes. "That's why I also felt bad when you called the girl trash. You're not trash, Ulquiorra."

"What are you attempting to portray to me, then, Alexia?"

She smiled. "Do you remember what happens to you? Dissolving, your ashes being scattered by the winds of Hueco Mundo? Whose fault is that?"

"You are accusing me."

She sighed and walked up to me, her smile now gone as she looked me in the eyes. "I am not. Do you think it's your fault that you were dragged into this stupid war?"

Silence filled the absence of our words and we stared into each other's eyes, as if observing the other. Seeing which one of us would speak the truth first. After a few moments she closed her eyes and her hand reached out to trace paths from my eyes, where my tear engravings would have been.

"You need to think about what you're doing for him," she murmured before turning but staying in place. I observed her tense back, the remarks of the girl and her concern for my death and came up with a different experiment.

_Phase three._

"You are also beautiful," I said and immediately received a reaction, her head snapping around to look at me. Her cheeks were flushed and she fought to reply. It was an indication for me to continue. My hands went to her shoulders and applied pressure. Instead of relaxing she stiffened more. "Even if that girl was beautiful, you are beautiful and also intelligent. If you do not want me to, I will not fight in the war."

"…Eh?" Her eyes were wide—as they often were, now—and she shook her head. "What do you mean?"

Perhaps it was time to tell her what she longed to hear. I could have said it in the first place to get faster results of what this 'love' was. Was love represented by the dream I had had a few days ago? Or was it something more than physical connection?

'I love you'.

Why was it difficult for me to say the words? Was it the void I occupied, where my soul, my 'heart' should have been? But…

My mind. The deep limbic system. It supposedly housed emotions. Love was an emotion, that much I knew. Then, was it possible to love without having a heart?

"Ulquiorra."

I blinked several times and met Alexia's eyes for a few moments. She seemed to be observing me intently.

"Let's go," she murmured and took my wrist. "We're wasting time just standing here."

Silent, I let her lead me to the location of where the wheel-like structure was located (_a ferris wheel_, I remembered). Amongst it were small temporary shops that did not sell products but advertised events which were going to happen in the days to come. People were selling not their handmade creations but tickets, which humans were using to board onto different mobile rides. Some of them rotated in circles, much like the carousel Alexia and I had ridden in Chicago. Others were more intricate, the small holding places rotating and the arrangement of capsule also rotating in a larger circle, giving twice the sensation of spinning. Looking around me. I saw Alexia with a handful of the gray tickets being handed out and she waved me over.

"We should be able to ride a few attractions," she murmured to herself, counting out each individual ticket. "Let's go on the ferris wheel last…" For an unknown reason her face flushed as she said that.

She beckoned me over and I followed her as she approached an attraction. It had a sign on the side of the stairs leading up to the machinery which said:

**Tilt-A-Whirl**

**This Ride Costs**

**5 TICKETS**

The last part was written sloppily and Alexia had to squint in order to read it. Once she had inspected it she took her handful of tickets and counted them out, compelling me to watch and do the same. Ten of them. From this I knew that she was intending for me to board the ride with her. My logic protested the preposterous idea but as Alexia took my arm and led me up the steel stairs I found that I did not have a choice.

"Welcome to the Tilt-A-Whirl," a man's voice announced somewhat and Alexia scoffed.

"What a warm welcome," she murmured and pulled down the lap bar that was settled above us. The blue seats were cushioned and with what I'd seen, this simple security would not keep us from being yanked to the sides of the small containment we were in. With that, a few more mumbled words from the man's voice coming out of the speakers were drowned out as the ride started. It seemed insecure; it was simply held by a pole in the middle and the capsule rotated around it on a set of small wheels. That was probably the point of the ride as it started spinning in a larger circle and the curved floor swung each capsule on its wheels. Now I could see how this all worked. As the ground level changed, our weight caused the capsule to turn either left or right and, depending on the timing, could either spin once or twice or for several moments on end, making you lose your sense of placement on the ride. The latter happened many times to us.

"Hey," Alexia laughed in a free-spirited way and lifted her hands in the air. "Don't just clutch the lap bar like that."

I looked down at my hands. As she said, they were hanging to the bar as if I was frightened. Was I? If not, what was this feeling which was coursing through me and making me feel energized? Adrenaline was the only answer I could conjure.

The capsule turned roughly at one moment, the moment I decided to release my grip on the bars slightly. This caused me to lose my balance and I slid to the side of the capsule. I heard a yelp of laughter at the same time my hands shot out to regain my grip, be it in any form.

The ride finally slowed to a stop after what had seemed like an eternity and I took advantage to regain my sense of perspective and looked at what I was doing. My whole body was turned to the left, my left knee propped on the blue cushion while my right leg was still on the ground level. I had effectively trapped Alexia, my right hand and arm blocking her torso while my left hand was situated right by her head. Her eyes were wide and she turned to stare at me.

"U-Ulquiorra…!" she laughed and put her hands on my wrists in an attempt to take my hands and arms off of the walls of the capsule to terminate her capture. They did not move. "Hey, the ride's over."

I ignored her words and neared her even more, invading some of her personal space which I knew was not appropriate. Her face flushed and she shut her eyes. In a lower and hushed tone I neared her ear and said, "Is it?"

With this quote she panicked and tugged on my arms. "What's with you today?!" she managed to keep her voice at a constant, calm level. Before I had properly thought it out my thoughts abandoned me and left my mouth.

"I am trying to comprehend how a being acts when they claim to 'love'. My experiment was to test different shows of affection and relation to you, since you are the one who claims to love me. I am the manipulator." Pure hurt was shown in her eyes, clearly, but I did not cease my speech. "Your reactions are unfathomable, woman. Perhaps it is because I have not said the words you long to hear?"

At this she finally regained her conscience, struggling against her confinement. "Let me go, Ulquiorra." Her hurt was heard in her voice. "And don't say them."

"Why not?"

"It'll hurt me," she said in a slightly harsher tone. "Are you really willing to hurt me mentally because you want to know what love is?"

I remained silent and let her push my arms away. She stood up and looked over her shoulder.

"I wanted to go on the ferris wheel with you. Is that too much for you?"

I shook my head and followed her. There was a few minutes' wait as each group of people were loaded onto separate capsules. The ride stopped frequently to let on new passengers and let off old ones. It seemed uneventful.

"Eight tickets," the bubbly girl with lime green dyed hair announced as Alexia approached. She nodded, in a trance, and handed the designated tickets to the girl. Said human opened an empty capsule and let us both in. "Welcome to the London Eye!" she bid a farewell to us and pulled a lever, making the machinery pull us along.

I observed my surroundings. Through an open window, I felt a mild breeze of cold air whip at my hair. In the distance, I saw a bright orb of light I identified as the sun. Was this…a sunset?

"It's beautiful," Alexia murmured, letting her rest her head in her arms as she let a portion of her visage show. She was leaning on the windowsill of the open window of the capsule. She watched the sunset with eyes that caught the light in them and reflected it clearly. "Have you seen one before?"

I shook my head although she could not see.

"Ulquiorra," she whispered. If not for the silence enveloping the atmosphere I would have most likely not heard her. "I can understand that you…you want answers. You're curious to know more about what you don't have, physically or knowledge-wise. But…don't…I need you to also understand that I can't just be your guinea pig for experiments."

I raised an eyebrow and stared at her. She further buried her face in her arms, shielding even her eyes from view.

"Love is delicate," she said, her voice slightly muffled. "Using it as you please can break a person. You already know this. You experienced it first-hand, when you were a human. That's why I'm telling you this.

"If you want to do this, then fine. Do whatever you want with my so-called 'love'. But tell me that you don't love me. I need to know how you feel, because if I don't know then I'll start to wonder and ask questions. It makes me feel unsure and it's a horrible feeling. But if you might just like me in a romantic way, then love me wholeheartedly. Love me with every particle of your being. If you tell me the truth, I want to hear all of it; don't leave out details. If you are going to tell me anything at all, please mean what you say."

Remaining silent, I looked to Alexia's hands which were gripping her arms. The capsule continued its ascension and I witnessed the sun descending.

"What are you doing?" I asked. Perhaps it wasn't the right question. She stiffened and cleared her throat. Sitting upright, her hair shielded her face, as well as her hands, which were furiously rubbing her eyes.

"W-well, it's nothing much," she laughed a bit and continued to rub her eyes. The capsule we were in suddenly came to a sharp and abrupt stop, causing us both to jolt. Alexia's hands retreated from her visage and I saw her face. Stained with tears and red-tinted eyes. She froze in place once our gazes met. Tears continued to form, her mouth was slightly open and her bottom lip quivered.

Something in me rose. _Get up._ And I did. The capsule moved a bit when I stood and Alexia's hands, palms down on the seats, clenched. What was motivating me at this moment was pure instinct. Nothing more and nothing less. It was instinct which made me outstretch my arms in an attempt to take her into my arms. My instincts told me to comfort her. _Why? _I asked, receiving no answer. _What am I doing? _This was similar to the time when she had been in my arms. Why had I pressed my lips to her forehead? What was my motive?

"Ulquiorra, no," she shook her head meekly and attempted to push me away. In any other circumstance I would have retreated. These circumstances caused the opposite, fighting against her to force her into my embrace. I refused to let her avert me from my objective. "What are you doing…Ulquiorra…Ulquiorra!"

She shut her eyes and a couple of tears dripped from her closed eyelids. Had I caused the pain she was experiencing? I wanted it to disappear. _Wait_, I thought, _why?_ Her struggle continued for a few more moments until she understood that I was not going to cease my efforts. I sat next to her and wiped a tear from her cheek. _Why?_

"Stop," she shuddered and contained a sob. I was certain now of her source of pain. It was seated next to her. "If you don't…"

I sighed, this time audibly, and came nearer to her, my arms tentatively reaching around her frame and holding her to me. She let out a sound of surprise and struggled against me but I did not let go. _Why am I doing this? Do I…do I truly love her?_

Her struggles ceased seconds later and she let herself sink into my arms. Laying her head on my shoulder, she cried quietly, her shoulders shaking. "This is the last time," she whispered. "I can't do this…not if you…"

_What if I told you that I do?_ I asked her, not audibly but in my mind. Was I confused or merely accepting the truth? Even I did not know what my feelings were. Assuming I truly had them.

"Tell me," she said. She did not need to elaborate on what she wanted me to tell her. Do I? Or do I not?

Since her head was on my shoulder, I was glad she could not see my face when I said, "I…do not."

She stiffened. My body was weak as she pulled herself away from me without an effort. "You don't what?"

"I apologize for doing these intimate things with you. I do…not…love you."

I hoped. For the first time, I felt myself hoping.

Hoping she could not hear the doubt in my voice.

Silence filled the atmosphere and the capsule began to move again, this time descending. Alexia was composing herself and I distanced myself from her. Looking down at her hands, she seemed to be deciding something. Her expression hardened with resolve after a few moments and she took a deep breath before turning to face me.

"Thank you," she said, confusing me. There was no reason to thank me. "Thank you for putting up with me these past few weeks and having to deal with my confusion. I'm not confused anymore, though, and I'm not going to trouble you again."

She stood up and positioned herself in front of me, leaving me to wonder what she was doing and why. Then she leaned down and put her face level with mine, inches away. Her hand reached out and settled on the right side of my face. I remained still as she closed her eyes came came closer. I found myself inhaling her scent as she pressed her lips to my left cheek, lingering there for a few moments. As she remained there I inspected her scent. It was refreshing and had a slightly sweet smell. It reminded me of the chocolate I had eaten when we were in Chicago; I found myself slightly relaxed at her close proximity.

She retreated after what seemed like an eternity, her face slightly flushed but not as much as I thought it would have been. She sat across from me and ran a finger around the area of her eyes, which were still slightly irritated.

"The sun's almost completely set," she murmured, looking out the window. Following her example, I did the same. The sun was now a sliver of light over the water. In the air above and around what was left of it, clouds were beginning to gather. Hues of purple, red and orange surrounded the scene. This was the beauty of something not made by man but nature itself. I should have appreciated it and thought of why humans wanted to divert their attention to their own inventions, which could not be as beautiful. Yet, when I thought of 'beauty'…

It was Alexia I gazed at.

**[Six]**

Me: Well then…

Grimmjow: I'm not doing it! You already made me do that with his character -_-

Me: -.- So?

Grimmjow: This is just your fangirl, isn't it? Alexia told me about it (Glares) You're sick.

Me: ;-;

Unbr0ken: OWWWWWO

Me: O_O He's going to eat us, Grimmjow! Hurry up and do it!

Grimmjow: No!

Me: Grimmjow!

Unbr0ken: RAWR!

Grimmjow: (Fed up) Alright, fine, I'll fucking do it but don't think that I like this, Arekushia -_-

Unbr0ken: OWWO?

Grimmjow: (Shoves hands in pockets and kisses Unbr0ken)

Me: o/o

Unbr0ken: …?

Grimmjow: (Closes eyes and tilts head)

Me: Woah, Grimmjow…

Unbr0ken: O/W/O

Grimmjow: (Jumps away a second later and wipes mouth) Th-there…

Me: :o Jay, are you back with us?

Grimmjow: (Looks at Unbr0ken with some reluctance) -_-?

Me: ^_^"""

Unbr0ken: OWWWWO

Grimmjow: (Raging) You just told me that he'd go back to normal if I kissed him!

Me: -/- (Hides) S-sorry.

Grimmjow: Sorry, my ass! You did this just for yourself, didn't you?!

[One week later Unbr0ken returned to normal :D]

Unbr0ken: ^_^ Hey, Grimm

Grimmjow: (Avoiding Unbr0ken completely)

Me: ^_^' I've made things complicated, haven't I?

_(Special thanks to Slayerette27 for restoring my lost motivation XD)_

Song of the Week: What's Your Name? by 4Minute


	33. Common sense is not reality…

Me: ^_^ Ummmmm…

Alexia: Where the fuck were you -_-

Me: I'm sorry it's just a lot of stuff happened I had my eighth grade graduation and we went places then there was a death in the family and then I got lazy and I sorta slacked off and then—

Grimmjow: You left your readers T_T

Me: Pretty much ;-;

Ulquiorra: I think many of your readers have gotten frustrated with you T_T

Me: •-• How frustrated?

Unbr0ken: Well I know for sure that I'm frustrated as hell especially after what happened in your last rant -_-

Alexia: Anxious to know what's going to become of you, eh?

Unbr0ken: It's not that!

Grimmjow: I'm just pissed (Gives me a death glare)

Me: Aw come on its not like you didn't like it Grimmy :D

Grimmjow: Ō_Ō

Me: (Hides behind Alexia) -.-'

Alexia: And the same can be said for Jay :D

Unbr0ken: -/- Shut the fuck up, it's not my fault that happened. Why the hell did you get so carried away anyways, Grimm?

Grimmjow: (Turns to Unbr0ken) I didn't get carried away -_-

Ulquiorra: You lingered and also tilted your head while kissing him.

Unbr0ken: S-see…

Grimmjow: I just thought that I needed to make it seem like I was being genuine (Panicking a little on the inside)

Alexia and I: Mhmm (Smirks)

Unbr0ken: Fucking fangirls (mutters) Can you not?

Me: Nope :o

Alexia: Nah :) But right now I think that the readers want to get to the story since its been over a month and a half since you updated, Arekushia -.-

Unbr0ken: Yeah, let's move on to that topic instead…

**OCTOBER SECOND, PART TWO**

We were finally off the ferris wheel a few minutes after the recent events came to pass. They were full of revelations and, to me, just made things more complicated. Sure, some things were resolved but…

Scratch that, shit was resolved.

Everyone was packing up for the day, so there weren't any other rides we could go on after we'd left the ferris wheel. Then again…I doubted I had the resolve to do so anymore. At least, not today.

We decided to go to a quaint restaurant in the area and the food I ate there gave me nostalgia. Ulquiorra didn't seem to notice the difference in taste (maybe that was because he didn't know of the stereotype on food from _here_—which I didn't know if was true or not since my taste buds weren't too picky) but what I tasted reminded me of my younger years. This was my home food. I ate chicken curry (the weather was becoming a little chilly and I ordered a cup of chamomile tea—surprise) while Ulquiorra ate a bowl of cream of broccoli soup and I looked out the window as I ate. There were dark clouds coming in and blocking what was becoming a starry sky. _We should leave before—_

On cue, lightning flashed in the far distance and I grew a bit worried. I wasn't afraid of thunderstorms, but I didn't know if it would make things difficult when we decided to go back to Hueco Mundo.

Before we left, I got up from the table we were seated at to go and pay our bill. The restaurant, albeit small, was crowded with people. It got good business…

Suddenly, the world seemed to tilt and I nearly lost my balance, as if my feet simply slipped from under me.

"Hey, you alright?" a voice called out from above. A girl, in her preteens, probably, stood above me, her hand grasping mine.

"Wha…," I murmured and struggled to get to my feet, the world starting to spin again as soon as I began to move. "Thanks…"

"It isn't a problem," she smiled a bit and helped me to my feet. I could feel the stares of several people on me but tried my best to ignore them. Gaining my balance and feeling that spinning sensation subside after a few moments, I made it to the register and paid for our food. Ulquiorra was already waiting by the door and he opened it for me as I neared it, following after I made my way through.

"What occurred?" he asked as we walked down a sidewalk.

"I don't know," my eyebrows furrowed. " I just hope it doesn't happen again."

Silence took over and I welcomed it wholeheartedly. My eyes wandered upward and I stared up at the sky. The clouds were slowly making their way in.

"We should look for something to…," I started, looking around me. I knew how to get to my home from here. Maybe I could rent a car? I knew how to drive without crashing into a tree so I figured that was my only choice. Then again, there were tour buses all over the place. That being said, one of them drove by and made a stop in front of us, the female driver asking where we were gong. For a split second, nothing more, nothing less, I forgot my address. It'd been so long since I'd come here. Once I told her my address her eyebrows furrowed but she motioned for us to board and I attempted to pay her; instead she just waved me off, saying that she would drive anyone with the storm that was about to pass through.

"Storm?" I asked.

"Yes, apparently it's going to cause flooding in some parts and plenty of power outages. That's why I said that I would let anyone ride for free right now. If they can't get to where they want to they'll get stuck in the storm and I don't want to regret not helping them."

_She's a rather talkative bus driver_, I noticed before going to sit next to Ulquiorra. In contrast to before, this bus was nearly empty, only a group of girls and a couple of elders were gathered in different parts of the bus. Being on the seat by the window, I got to look out of it. Trees were moving in the increasing breeze and the sky was turning a darker gray. The slightly ajar window let in a cool breeze and moved my hair to and fro.

In about twenty minutes I saw that we had arrived where I wanted to go. My eyes widened when I saw what was situated around the house and almost forgot about Ulquiorra when I left the bus, quickly turning to catch Ulquiorra's wrist and pull him along with me. I yelled a thanks to the driver and she nodded before driving away from the scene.

I stood in front of what used to be my home—no, in a sense it still was. The wooden outer walls which were once white were now painted a royal blue with lavender trim. The windows were free of any curtains, such as the velvet ones my mother once had on them. The windows were so clean that at first, I thought that there weren't any windows at all. Walking up to the window across the trimmed green grass, I saw myself reflected in it and reached out to touch it when—

"Hey!" a voice shouted out to me and I jolted, turning towards the voice. A man in a suit walked over to me, a stern look on his face. "What are you doing?"

"Uh, er…," I stuttered for an explanation but couldn't come up with one.

"Kid, don't trespass," he crossed his arms and I fought the urge to smile through my confusion. _Trust me, this isn't trespassing_. "This estate's been taken care of very tediously, if you haven't noticed."

"Estate?" I asked, this time not putting up a half-assed act.

"Do you not see this?" the guy sighed and stepped aside, motioning towards a 'For Sale' sign. My eyebrows furrowed a bit. I'd seen it—in fact, it was the very first thing I'd seen, which was why I'd gotten off of the bus in such a hurry. But it was too sudden. What had happened within the course of a month and a half that caused my biological family to disappear off the face of the earth?

Not counting the ones who were already gone.

"Now, if you would please—"

"I'll buy this," I pointed to the house nonchalantly and he looked at me skeptically.

"Come this way," he nodded towards the sign and I sighed before following. Where the price for the house would be, he took a pen out of his pocket and pointed to the assigned price for my home. It was more than I thought. It must have gone under some major reconstruction, because…

"One million five hundred…!" I murmured in surprise. I might not have much knowledge in living quarters but I think I knew the 'okay' limit for the cost of a house. "One million five hundred euros for this? That's nearly two million dollars in U.S. currency!"

"Do you understand why we can't have people like you—"

"I'll buy it."

Once again, he stared at me with a raised eyebrow that said 'Oh, really?' and he pushed up his frameless glasses, reminding me of Ishida. _He even has his signature scowl_, I thought and suppressed a smirk. "You don't know much about the house. It's gone through several changes but it consistently has stayed with—"

"Five bedrooms, three bathrooms, two kitchens—one on each floor, a basement, a balcony on the second floor and enough space in the attic to even regard it as another floor."

His eyes turned wide but narrowed a few moments later, showing the skepticism he had towards me.

"I've done some research," I lied and smiled. "I've been interested in this house for months now." As I said that I mentally swore to myself. _This house has only been for sale for two months, maximum_, I thought with dread. _He's going to figure it out…_

Then he nodded, albeit hesitantly. For a second I was utterly confused; either this guy was new or had short-term memory. "Come with me," he turned and motioned with a finger for me to follow him, which I did after about half a second's hesitation. Looking back, I saw Ulquiorra go up to the house and sit on the small stone steps leading up to the door.

"Fiancé?" I heard the agent ask. I was glad his back was to me when I murmured a no, looking down at my feet. My thoughts began to wander to what had happened less than an hour ago.

_ "Love is delicate," I started, my head in my arms. "Using it as you please can break a person. You already know this. You experienced it first-hand, when you were a human. That's why I'm telling you this._

_ "If you want to do this, then fine. Do whatever you want with my so-called 'love'. But tell me that you don't love me. I need to know how you feel, because if I don't know then I'll start to wonder and ask questions. It makes me feel unsure and it's a horrible feeling. But if you might just like me in a romantic way, then love me wholeheartedly. Love me with every particle of your being. If you tell me the truth, I want to hear all of it; don't leave out details. If you are going to tell me anything at all, please mean what you say."_

_ Silence took over and I couldn't stand it. I could feel myself caving in to the emotions I'd felt when he told me that he was just using me as a subject for a theory he was trying to prove to himself. My hands were shaking and I didn't want him to see, so I tightened my grip on my arms to try and lessen the involuntary movement._

_ "What are you doing?" Ulquiorra spoke up. I began to panic and tried not to show my face as I cleared my throat and attempted to answer his question. _What _was_ his question? Or was it an observation?_ I'd forgotten all too quickly. Sitting up, I got into a casual position, my hands resting on the seat I was on and my head inclined. My shoulders were stiff. _Now if only I could actually act casual_, I thought bitterly. Tears were pricking at the corner of my eyes and I desperately begged for them to not fall._

_ "Well, it's nothing much," I laughed, rubbed my eyes a bit, and said whatever came to mind; all of a sudden, the ferris wheel stopped suddenly, as if the person controlling it had pulled a lever accidentally. I jumped in place, my fatal mistake. The hair that was shielding my face was now over my shoulder and my hands weren't hiding me either. At that moment, my tears fell and I looked up, straight into Ulquiorra's eyes. I felt embarrassed beyond belief. But I felt confusion and hurt when he abruptly got up and attempted to embrace me. Attempted and succeeded, when I failed at trying to push him away. He was so warm…why? _Why is he doing this? Didn't I just tell him to be sincere and not a puzzle with missing pieces?_ But those questions didn't matter as I found myself hypnotized by his presence, his warm embrace with no real intention to comfort me. He was probably still 'testing' me. But if he was, then I wanted to enjoy it while I could. But this was the last time. I wouldn't let it happen again. In a way, this was a farewell. I only hoped it would last. I was murmuring words to him right now, but I didn't know what they were and tried to pay more attention to my actions._

_ "Tell me," I heard myself say. He would know what I was requesting._

_ "I…do not."_

_ My heart plunged and I tried not to show it. If I told him to clarify maybe the reality would impale itself and finally snap me out of my stupid illusions. "You don't what?"_

_ "I apologize for doing these intimate things with you. I do…not…love you."_

_ Why did he sound hesitant?_

So much for impaling my illusions with reality. Now I was only more confused.

"Are you listening to me?"

I started and looked up. The agent had led me to a trailer (somehow I'd been following him while being deep in my thoughts) and the door was ajar as he waited for me to enter. Even though I hadn't heard a word of what he'd said, I nodded and entered the trailer. For a brief moment I wondered why I wasn't questioning the act of following a stranger into his 'house' but shrugged. To me, the whole 'Stay away from strangers' thing was a load of crap. Whether we wanted to or not, we'd have to interact with people we didn't know. It was the ones that acted strange that you needed to be wary of.

_Says the one who lives in a world of supposed killing machines, has a destructive maniac as a brother and is in love with someone who doesn't have a heart. At least, not a physical one…_

_ Stop thinking about it,_ I scolded myself. _You're just making it worse…_

The whole process I had to go through was pretty troublesome to me. I'd always thought that buying a house would be a lot less…complicated. Insurance, attorneys, budgets, a whole bunch of things were taken into account that I hadn't even thought of when I'd proposed buying my childhood home. After a while, though (which I hoped wasn't too long since Ulquiorra had been waiting outside ever since I'd gotten in the trailer), we finally sorted things out. I'd pretty much been able to pay off the house with a simple swipe of my credit card—'_technology is becoming almost overly useful'_, the agent had told me—and we could worry about insurance and the rest of my problems with living in a house later.

"Thanks…" I smiled sheepishly at the agent after the tiring ordeal was done. He led me out of the trailer and up to the porch, which was painted white. The garden around us was amazing to look at, as if a small city of flowers, shrubs and statues had been built in the grass. No one in the family would have found the patience for something like this.

"Well, here are the official keys," he said and handed me a set of several keys, although as far as I knew there was only the need for one. "I'm afraid that, at the moment, the house is still going through remodeling so a majority of the rooms are unavailable to sleep in. However, the kitchen, living room, a bathroom and a bedroom are available."

"Only one bedroom?" I asked, raising and eyebrow. A small amount of panic crept up my throat and I tried not to show it.

"Well, two, but one of them is boarded up and no one has tried to accommodate themselves in that particular room since one family claimed that the room was haunted. Business for this particular house has been generally a bit tough since then."

I resisted the urge to scoff and cross my arms. "I'm sure a few ghosts won't bother me."

"Woman."

I was slightly startled at the voice behind me and I turned quickly to see Ulquiorra standing on the porch. I gave him a smile and a wave. "Nice to see that you didn't decide to leave me here, where've you been?"

"It will rain soon," he said simply, ignoring my question. "We must leave."

"Ah…"

What was I thinking?

Why did I buy my house? It wasn't as if we were going to stay here. I tried to remember why I hadn't thought about this before—the fact that we were going back to Hueco Mundo and this was just a trip to my old home, nothing more.

"This way," I said simply and grabbed Ulquiorra's wrist, hauling him off around the corner of the house.

"What is the problem, woman?" asked Ulquiorra.

I sighed and scratched the back of my neck. "I wasn't thinking about what I was doing. Distracted, I did something I shouldn't have."

"What is it, woman?" he repeated, his tone slightly sharp. It was sort of cool, how I'd been able to hear the difference in his voice when he spoke because of how much time I'd spent with him. _Now, if only I could read minds…_

"I, er, bought a house." On cue, thunder rumbled in the distance. _Gee, thanks._

"…You purchased living quarters?"

"…Yeah…" I felt heat rise to my cheeks from embarrassment. "Sorry about that."

Before I knew it, he was opening a garganta and I didn't ask what he was doing or why he was doing it. Yet, when he tried to part the atmosphere, my eyes widened as I saw that…

He couldn't do it.

"What's wrong?" I asked, tilting my head. "Why isn't the garganta opening?" Instead of answering me, he remained silent and again attempted to split the sky. Only a small spark charged through his fingertips and made a wave-like shape in the atmosphere. Once that had formed he tried to make it open up but it dissipated and vanished in less than a second. Another rumble of thunder came suddenly, this one twice as loud and menacing, warning us. An idea formed in my mind. "Ulquiorra, stop."

He turned towards me and asked, "What is it?"

"Right now isn't the right time to…," I ceased my speech as I felt them. Raindrops. They were light at first, but that quickly changed. "Hurry up, we need to get inside."

He looked down at his hand; I sighed and rolled my eyes. Going up to him, I grabbed his wrist and pulled him along, although he moved on his own after a few seconds. We came back to where we were and I saw that the agent was still there, but he had a few papers in his hands. _Oh please, not more things for me to worry about…_

"I was wondering where you'd gone," he said. In one hand was the papers and in his others he was holding up a royal blue umbrella which was protecting him from the rain. "I have a few flyers for upcoming events, if you'd like to see them. With this I'll have to dismiss myself." He walked over and handed me the papers, his umbrella momentarily protecting me from the rain. I gave a small smile and said a thanks, and with that he was gone.

Leaving me in the rain once again.

"Ulquiorra, this way," I said and nodded off towards the house as the rainfall began to get heavier by the second. It took only a few seconds for me to unlock the door and go inside. What greeted me was almost foreign.

The place was definitely going through renovations. Half of the furniture had plastic covers on them while what wasn't covered was unceremoniously arranged around the large space melding the kitchen, living room, and dining room.

"This is where you have lived when you were younger, woman?"

"Yeah…," I murmured, walking slowly and inspecting every inch of what I saw. "But, things have definitely changed…colors, furniture, hardly anything is the same. Even though this stuff is here it still feels like my home; that's the strange thing."

He didn't say anything but I didn't try to get him to talk and continued to walk around the area. Black leather couches instead of the mahogany nylon couches we used to have. The coffee table was made of glass and steel instead of wood and the floor wasn't carpeted anymore. The fireplace held an artificial fire instead of a real one and a television was nowhere in sight. The majority of the furniture covered in plastic rendered me unable to tell what was hidden from sight.

The next half hour was spent exploring the house, seeing what was different and what had stayed the same. As the agent had said, a bedroom was untouched—what I hadn't expected was the fact that it was my room, and it was completely boarded up. It took a bit of time for Ulquiorra and I to get the wooden boards off, and even then he had to resort to getting out of his marioneta in order to do so. The soul inhabiting his body was the complete opposite of him, cheerful and somewhat of a flirt…

Needless to say, an awkward silence passed when said soul wrapped my arms around my shoulders and nestled his head into my neck. Realizing whose body the soul was in, I blushed a little and forced my way out of the embrace, clearing my throat afterwards and laughing a little when Ulquiorra went back into his body, discarding the faux soul.

"This is your room," he stated more than asked and I nodded, stepping in the room and immediately feeling nostalgic. The lavender walls, twin bed in the far corner of the room, three dressers along the edges of the walls and two large windows above the bed made me smile. I rushed over to the closet and coughed when a bit of dust flew out along with the breeze I'd created. Fishing through the jumbled pairs of shoes and boxes, I found the photo album I was looking for and closed the closet door before sitting on the floor with my back up against the bed. Looking up, I saw Ulquiorra staring and patted the still-carpeted floor next to me. "Want to go for a blast into my past?" I asked with absolute lack of motivation.

He remained silent for a few moments before he walked over and sat next to me. I opened the album and immediately saw myself with…Sammy. I smiled a bit, although it was a slightly sad one. We were both flashing a peace sign; she was wearing a sundress with intricate details, and sandals which had shiny gems that reflected the sun's light off of them; whereas I wore a purple top and black capris, my ponytail tucked in through a cap. It was obvious which one of us cared more about our appearance. A body of water was in the distance. It was a trip to the beach…I think? Strange…I could usually remember everything that happened on a certain day just from a picture, but I couldn't remember anything anymore…

"What is wrong?" Ulquiorra's voice spoke next to me but I remained silent, the rain outside filling the silence.

"I can't remember," I sighed, staring at the picture intensely. _Who was taking that photo? What place was that? What did we do afterwards and before? What did we eat? How did we get there? Why?_

"You are troubled."

"…Yeah."

Both of us remained silent for some time after, me trying to figure out the events of that photographed day while Ulquiorra just watched me. I knew it shouldn't have bothered me much—I would eventually forget that I even had this photo album one day—but for some reason it just did. If you asked me I wouldn't be able to explain it. Lightning and thunder resonated from my windows but we ignored it completely. In a trance I thumbed through other pictures. I should have remembered those, too. But I couldn't, no matter how hard I tried to. I finally sighed in defeat and, bringing my knees and photo album up to my chest, let my head fall in between two pages of the album.

"Do you want to remember?" Ulquiorra suddenly asked and I lifted my head, turned it a bit, and raised my eyebrow.

"I don't believe I've been throwing a mental bitch fit because I _don't_ want to remember…"

He stared and I sighed.

"Yeah."

"I may be able to assist you," he replied and, just like that, I was all ears.

"What do you have in mind?"

In the span of a few seconds, he was out of his marioneta and in his espada uniform. A silent soul inhabited his marioneta now. Well, it was better than the last one…I tried to poke his chest, surprised when I could actually make contact with him. Smiling I said, "I missed your uniform."

"I have not attempted this," he ignored my comment and looked down at the album. "Choose."

I raised an eyebrow but understood what he was asking (well, more like commanding) and went back to the first picture. "Okay…"

His hand reached out and his index finger made contact with the center of the picture. I witnessed the scene as small waves of pale green reiatsu spread across the picture, until the glow of his reiatsu faded and he lifted his hand. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion but I stayed still nonetheless when his hand neared me, or rather, my forehead. Then in a flash I saw it.

_ "Hurry up!" I yelled out to Murci. He rolled his eyes and flashed a random picture. "That's not what I meant, you bloody…"_

_ In quick succession, five more pictures were randomly taken until I started chasing Murci around and he laughed, seeking refuge by crouching behind an oblivious Sammy._

_ "The beach is getting crowded," she said and turned to take the camera, flashing a few pictures of herself. "We're going to be late, come on!"_

_ "We need to take a picture before we go!" Murci protested and narrowly missed the kick to his head._

_ "We would've been able to take a picture a long time ago if you hadn't been fucking around and taking a thousand pictures of yourself," I muttered and grabbed a fistful of his hair. I detested this…_thing_, but since Auria was getting along with him I wasn't going to be selfish and bail out on our trip to the beach that we'd planned months ago._

_ That didn't mean I couldn't torment him._

_ Or show my hatred towards him in public._

_ The list could go on forever…_

_ "Ow, let go of my—"_

_ "Hideous wig?" I taunted and raised an eyebrow while looking down at him. He swung at me and I sighed before letting him go; he rubbed his head and looked up at me with a pout. I replied with a death glare and pointed a distance away. Getting the message, it only took a few moments for him to get up and go to his spot before Sammy and I got in position. Flashing a peace sign, a hand on our hips, grinning at the camera._

I jolted. The first thing I saw after the flashback was a muffled darkness that I realized was Ulquiorra's hand still on my forehead. I cleared my throat and he immediately took his hand off. "Did you…"

"It was a theory," he simply replied and I smiled a little.

"Thanks."

A particularly loud rumble of thunder made both of us turn to the window. Getting on my knees on top of the bed, I was surprised by just how relentless the storm was.

"It's really coming down, huh?"

"…"

"Do you like the rain?" I asked and turned around.

"No."

I remembered the way he went into his resurreccion, a torrent of rain made of reiatsu. "Why?" Then I felt like the dumbass of the millennia when I remembered his dream. "Sorry, I forgot about that…"

He remained silent that time and I didn't press it any further, instead watching the storm. Since the windows didn't have blinds attached to them and my room faced the forest in the distance, it was mesmerizing to watch the wind whipping the trees while merciless rain fell down to earth; almost frightening at some times. Then, although I should have been expecting it, the lights flickered. I snapped my head around, watching the lamp in my rooms to go off and on for a few seconds before regaining their light.

"The storm's just getting worse and…worse," I yawned halfway through the sentence, the sounds of the storm almost lulling me into a drowsy trance. The sudden vibration of my cell phone in my pocket temporarily gave me some more energy as I unbuttoned the pocket and checked the caller ID—in which it took about half a second to answer the call once I read the name.

'Alexia?'

"Szayel?" I asked in a surprised tone. Several questions swam around in my head but I let him speak first.

'I trust you're having trouble with the garganta?'

"I was going to ask about that," I admitted. "What went wrong?"

'There's a severe storm passing through your area, am I right? It does tend to happen.' Before he'd said that I put the call on speaker and Ulquiorra listened in as well. 'All you need to do is wait for the storm to calm down. Don't worry about it.'

"Even the espada succumb to mother nature, huh?" I laughed a little.

'I'm afraid you're—' I winced when a loud screeching noise interrupted Szayel's speech and I raised an eyebrow.

"What is happening?" asked Ulquiorra, which I responded to with a confused shrug.

"It was fine a few seconds ago—!" I witnessed a lightning bolt hitting somewhere in the forest not at all far away from here, bringing a blinding white into the room for several moments. It took my eyes to adjust to the blackness of the room after the electric charge dissipated and faded way. "Shit." The lights flickered on for about a second before I heard a spark and it went dark again. "Now it's completely off."

"What happened?" Ulquiorra asked.

"Lights went out because of that lighting strike."

I closed my eyes and remembered the layout of the house. _The stairs are to the left…then taking another left should lead to the electrical switches (whatever they're called) and the kitchen is right next to that. If I can get a flashlight from the kitchen I'll be all set._

As it was, my eyesight was already beginning to adjust to the darkness. I'd never tell anyone, but I was secretly afraid of this house, as if there was a presence that shouldn't have been there. Just maybe, that ghost story was real…Taking a cautious step back with my hands in back, I came into contact with Ulquiorra and turned to face him. "I'm going to try and turn the power back on again. Just wait here, okay?"

He remained silent and only looked at me—no, it almost seemed as if he was looking through me. Strange. I shrugged and headed downstairs, trailing my hands along the walls to keep track of where I was going. Several times, I almost fell when going down the stairs. _Why, how graceful you've become,_ I scolded.

Once I found my way to the kitchen, finding the flashlight was easy; second cabinet from the right, top shelf. My anger rose up when its batteries didn't work. Luckily my mom was, at least, a bit OCD when it came to putting things in their proper place, so the batteries were probably in the same place. Suddenly, when I tried the old batteries again, it made a connection and I was able to get an incredibly dim light. Step two: somewhat a success.

Step three: restore power.

Mom had never tried to teach me how to do things around the house—_that's what maids are for_, she'd tell me. Of course I'd disagreed with her and learned how to do things around the house anyways. One of the things the maids had taught me was how to turn on the electricity when it would go out. As I opened the vault, I thought I felt someone or something in the same area as me and I looked back. Stupid house.

"Let's see…," I said to myself. There were about thirty different switches. If I wasn't mistaken, the seventh one from the bottom was for everything in general… "Well, let's hope I don't get electrocuted, shall we?"

When I flicked the switch, nothing happened. I furrowed my brows and tried again. Cross-popping veins appeared and multiplied as I desperately tried to get the power going again.

"Fuck this," I flicked the switch one last time before sighing. As if the flashlight knew I was done, it flickered off. Great, that was just what I fucking needed.

Well, back to tracking the walls. It was easier to see where I was going (although not perfect) now that my eyes had begun to adjust more. Just when I was thinking of how Ulquiorra would be, maybe traveling around the house without knowing exactly where he was going, I gasped as I felt myself be pushed roughly to the wall.

An arm was supported on the wall next to my head my head, and the other was also on the wall, near my shoulder; I was trapped. The feeling of being trapped momentarily made me panic, but I willed myself to calm down. When I looked into the eyes of the person in front of me, I was surprised to see Ulquiorra's eyes. I could see the green irises through the darkness. My heart beat faster when I saw something within his eyes. _What's with this look he's giving me…?_

_ Shit…!_

His lips were on mine in an instant. My eyes widened considerably and I barely contained myself from letting out a small noise of surprise. I was frozen to the spot as I tried to process what was happening right in front of my eyes, the feeling of lips on mine, his lips on mine. The hand that was previously near my shoulder was now on the small of my back, pressing me to him. What's going on…

I felt something run along my bottom lip and I opened my mouth little by little, not acknowledging what I was doing but simply knowing that I was doing it, granting him access. Without my knowing, I'd wrapped my arms around Ulquiorra's neck and tilted my head a bit. I wanted more. I couldn't decipher what I was feeling at the moment but knew how I wanted this to continue.

_This is Ulquiorra…_

_ And…this is really happening…?_

I couldn't think straight.

Ulquiorra parted our mouths and went up to my ear. "Alexia." There was something off about his voice—but then again, there was something off about this entire situation.

"…Mm," I screwed my eyes shut and tried to ignore his hand sifting through my hair, his other hand rubbing small circles on my lower back. This was…what was it? A dream? Or reality?

"Do you want me to do this?" he asked in a slightly breathy voice, sending a small shiver down my spine. _Real or not? What the hell is going on?!_

"Do what…exactly?" I murmured in response. I was surprised I could still think rationally, even if only a little bit. Our eyes met, his intense and mine uncertain, confused. His face neared mine and I was reminded of the one time he'd done that, the very first time (although I was still questioning whether that had been real or just a trick of the mind). It was so long ago. No one would interrupt now.

"Kiss you."

"…Yes." My own answer surprised me, but I didn't have time to ponder over that. Our lips met once more.

Exhilarating. That was the perfect word to describe the situation at the moment. I felt his tongue again and opened my mouth slowly, reveling in the feelings accompanying this unexpected kiss. _For someone who's never done this before, he's pretty good at it_…I'd sift my hands in his hair, tug a little and he'd let out a low moan that made dozens of chills go up and down my spine. Why was this happening…? So many questions and feelings were building up, overwhelming me.

Then an image flashed in my mind. Ulquiorra, turning to dust.

His hand reaching out.

And me not being able to reach him.

"No…," I murmured. Ulquiorra was reluctant to stop. I couldn't see his face—he'd buried his head in the crook of my neck. His warm breath fanned across and I fought to not give in. Slowly, he started to retreat from me but I held him closer on instinct. _What the hell am I doing? _There were tears at the corners of my eyes. Did I not want him to see?

Even though I let out a small whimper of protest, he backed away and we lost all contact. In that moment, the lights flickered on and I shut my eyes at the sudden intrusion of light. Taking advantage of the situation, I wiped my eyes. To anyone else it'd look like I just wasn't used to the light.

That was only partially true.

"Ulquiorra…," I sighed, finally opening my eyes. _Wait. Where is he?_

_ Nowhere._

Was this all a dream? It had felt so real…there was no way that could've been fake.

In a stupor, I walked up the stairs so zombie-like that if I'd looked in a mirror I'd thought that a ghost was following me. Hesitation replaced itself in my empty mind when I reached my room. The door was closed. What was Ulquiorra doing? Moreover, had he been there the whole time—making all of what had happened just a figment of my imagination? A messed up figment. I couldn't believe that I would actually imagine something like that. It was…wrong, and even disgusting to a certain degree. Not because of what I'd imagined Ulquiorra had done but because of me, so willingly giving in.

Gathering what little resolve I had left, I turned the knob and went in. The first thing that I encountered were Ulquiorra's eyes. I gulped and stared into them.

"You succeeded in fixing the electricity," he noted. Averting my eyes from him, I gave a small nod and sat down on the carpeted floor. An awkward silence settled in. I couldn't forget the events that had just come to pass. They still flashed in my mind, the feel of his hands on my head and back, his tongue in my mouth, his frame hovering over mine even though he was only about an inch taller than I.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked suddenly. "Your face is red."

"Nothing…," I murmured. "Could you get up from the bed? I'm going to set it up and then you can sleep on it."

"And you?"

"There's a lot of blankets in my closet," I explained. "I'll just unfold them on the floor, grab a pillow and get comfy." As I talked, I opened the door to my closet and pulled out a few thick blankets I usually used in the wintertime and extended them on the floor. Suddenly, I was aware of a presence closer to me.

"I will sleep here," Ulquiorra stated, his voice next to my ear. The low tone of his voice made goosebumps go up my arms. He seemed to notice as well. "Is there a problem?"

"…No," I whispered and made space between us. "Just…I'm thinking."

"About?"

"Stuff. My imagination."

"What do you imagine?"

"Nothing in particular…"

He left it at that and instead decided to pull the covers on my bed, neatly folding them back.

"I need clothing to sleep in," he suddenly said. Everything about him was sudden—or, at least, that's how I'd perceived it as of late.

"There's…pajamas in the dresser on the left," I replied quietly, remembering that it was an empty dresser (as far as my clothes and possessions went). He went to it and pulled out black sweatpants and a dark green pullover; they were probably my brother's, from when he decided to sneak into my room and sleep alongside me, although (unless he'd continued to do so while I was gone or had a huge growth spurt) the clothes seemed a few sizes too big. My heart skipped way too many beats as Ulquiorra took his shirt off in plain view. "U-ulquiorra!"

"What?" he said nonchalantly.

"I-if you're going to change then do it where I can't see you!"

"Why were you watching in the first place?"

"Please put your shirt back on!"

He stared at my flushed face and gave a sigh before doing so. Saying that I didn't like the view I'd gotten would be the fucking story of my life…

"You seem more flustered than usual, woman," he noted after he'd successfully gotten his pajamas completely on (my eyes practically glued shut the whole time).

"More than usual…?"

"Has something happened?"

"I don't know…it would help if I knew if it actually happened." I continued to spread the sheets on the floor, folding and layering five or six of them. They were thick, and to me would be just as comfortable as having a mattress.

"I will use your washroom," he informed, leaving the room with a soft click of the door.

Taking a deep breath, I collapsed onto the bed sheets and flailed around, physically trying to take out the tingling feeling I had.

"Fuck!" I hissed when my hand hit my dresser. The dresser was about to get a punch before I realized that it would only hurt me further. Sighing, I took in the scent of the bed sheets, bringing a nostalgic feeling with them.

_What the hell is this?_ I felt a rectangular lump by my head and fumbled under the sheets to find what it was. My heart skipped a beat and I grinned from ear to ear when I saw the shiny electronic device with a bitten apple on the back.

"Oh my god!" I laughed, sitting up and turning it on; it took a while, but it finally flashed the lock screen: Ulquiorra with a green jacket and black scarf around his neck, with headphones and fingerless gloves. His mask was missing and he looked in a half-confused, half-nonchalant way at the chocolate heart in his hand. "I should change that…," I murmured, a small blush on my face.

Unlocking the screen, I gave a small squeal when I saw all my apps, games, and songs. Especially the songs. Quickly going to them, I scanned the entire list and found one that satisfied my ecstatic mood right now. 'Rock that Body' by the Black Eyed Peas came on and I bobbed my head to the beat, then got up and glanced at the door—turning away just as quickly with the energetic feeling I was getting with this song, a grin on my face.

I got into the rhythm; my feet moved on the carpeted floor and my shoulders shifted, doing a half-robotic dance. My hips started to sway as the rhythm changed and I swung my head from side to side, iPod in hand. How long had it been since I'd done something like this, doing whatever the hell I wanted front of no one? But it almost felt like I was missing something, like something else should've been there. I started to sing along with the music—until I heard the door click open.

"Woman."

I stopped dead in my footing but the music kept going. Facing the door, I saw a nonchalant face looking at me, the door open only a few inches. I felt so much heat rise to my face that I thought I might've become a volcano. I stumbled to turn the music off but I just ended up dropping the iPod. Giving up, all I did was hang my head and hide the rest of my face with my hair as the music continued to play.

"What were you doing, woman?"

"…"

I heard him walking towards me and took a step back, remembering what (might have) happened downstairs. Once he bent down to pick up the iPod, though, I breathed an inaudible sigh of relief. He stared at the screen and turned it in his hands to the speaker, bringing it up to his ear. Then he retreated it and began to press different buttons, a slightly confused expression on his face. To say the least, I found his mannerisms…cute.

His hands froze once he found something and I raised an eyebrow. Then I was frozen in place once again when he showed me a picture of him on the screen. And another. And another…

"G-give it back!" I stepped forward and held my hand out.

"What is this?" he held up another photo; this one had him in his espada uniform, but the top was open down the middle and the wind made the coat tails flap to the side, behind him. His hollow mask was gone but the tear streaks and gothic four on his muscular chest was in view, bloodstains on his chest. His head was turned to the side and his one eye which was in view looked off into the distance. He (the actual Ulquiorra) stared straight into my eyes and I blushed a bit.

"It's nothing," I mumbled and averted my eyes from the iPod, reaching my hand out to it instead. Once it was set in the palm of my hand I took to going through my photo album and selecting all of the pictures that had Ulquiorra in them in any way, shape or form.

"Are you deleting them?" he asked although it sounded like a statement more than anything.

"Uh huh…"

"Why?"

"Eh, well…because…," I looked away with furrowed eyebrows. Under my breath so he couldn't hear me I continued, "Because having more than ten pictures of you is a little more than creepy, in my opinion…"

"Do not delete them," he suddenly said and I raised an eyebrow. "I would like to see all of them," he simply stated and held out his hand, expecting me to comply. _When did I become so careless?_ I thought when I gave him the iPod without hesitation. _What the hell, Alexia,_ I thought and he glanced at me before shifting his gaze back to the iPod screen. Some of the pictures were screenshots of the anime, others cropped from the manga and others which were drawn by other people. In truth, one of the pictures I'd drawn of him were there. I just hoped I'd deleted it. I mean, it wasn't vulgar or anything but I still felt slightly embarrassed that he would see something I'd drawn. Or maybe he wouldn't. After all, it wasn't as if he could tell that I'd drawn it.

"Um…"

"What is it?"

"Why are you interested in your pictures?" I asked, but didn't get an answer. The song ended in that moment and I cleared my throat. Getting the message, Ulquiorra handed me the iPod and I resumed my task of deleting the pictures. Once I had erased all of them (although I had to admit that there was a moment of hesitation…) I resumed the activity of laying out the bed sheets and sighed once I was done. It was late and I could feel my drowsiness tugging at me.

"Here."

A loud rumble of thunder. I jolted, realizing that I was falling asleep before I could take account of it. Forcing my eyes open and taking in my surroundings, I turned around and saw Ulquiorra holding out a couple of papers at me, which I discovered were flyers once I turned them right side up and skimmed through them while sitting on the makeshift bed on the floor. A circus coming by in two weeks…concerts in an auditorium I'd never heard of before, where people I didn't know performed every weekend…a dance?

I looked at the last of them, a small paper about the size of my hand. A dance for the third of October. Tomorrow. My eyes widened and, despite the fact that I didn't dance a lot (in my room does not count…), I felt myself getting excited.

"Hey," I called out to Ulquiorra, looking up at him to ask if he wanted to go. And I would have if he wasn't fast asleep. For a moment I could only stare. I hadn't heard him get into bed. Hell, I hadn't heard a thing once I'd started reading these papers. But I regretted it now. For some reason I wanted him to be awake. I wanted to talk with him.

_Will I feel like this once he's go—_

_ What am I thinking?_

_ I need to stop thinking like that_, I scolded myself. A bright flash illuminated the room for a split second and I jolted when loud thunder followed, my heart beating fast against my ribcage. Fear. Anxiety. I forced it down. I couldn't dote on the doubts I had. Instead of focusing on how worried I was, I should've been thinking of a way to stop that from happening.

Sighing, I stepped as close to the window as I could and looked at the storm brewing. Maybe this was a sign…or I was just saying that with nothing to support it, since there was no sign of anything in the storm that related to me. Scoffing, I dimmed the lights until they turned off completely and went into the bathroom, putting on my own pajamas. I felt slightly uncomfortable not brushing my teeth but I'd solve that problem by going to a convenience store first thing in the morning. I felt my way back to my room and settled onto the floor, pulling a tank top over over my head and sneaking out my iPod again, setting an alarm for six and then putting my earphones in, the volume low as my favorite k-pop songs lulled me to sleep.

**BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP—**

"Shit," I muttered and pulled my earphones out. "Should've set it as birds' chirping instead of that annoying…" I continued to mutter to myself and pulled the covers off of me, freezing in place as I remembered everything that had previously happened before I'd fallen asleep. My head snapped over at Ulquiorra, but he hadn't budged. I was immensely thankful that he didn't have otherworldly hearing abilities or else he'd probably been able to hear my alarm blasting through my earphones. As it was, I could still hear it even though they were far away from my head. Or maybe that was just me being paranoid. Whatever the case, I quickly unlocked the iPod screen and disarmed the alarm, sighing when the annoying beeping ceased, leading to silence and—ironically—birds chirping outside. Being who I was (your average let-me-wake-myself-up-or-I'll-kill-you morning person), I yawned, stretched, and fell back onto the sheets, snuggling into a fetal position. Sleep almost took over again but then I remembered why I was getting up this early and sighed quietly.

My movements were as quiet as possible as I stood up, got a new set of clothes and went to my bathroom. Once there I took a quick shower, the warm water fully waking me and relaxing my somewhat pissed mood. I dressed in a long chocolate brown skirt that was an inch or two lower than my knees and a thin, long sleeved white shirt made of silky and slightly fuzzy material; the neckline drooped across my shoulders. Since people had been paranoid by the supposed haunting of my room, they hadn't touched anything, meaning most of my possessions were still there; that being said, I felt nostalgic when I brushed my hair with a hairbrush I'd used when I was still living here. It seemed like so long ago, but it couldn't have been more than what, five or six years? I couldn't even keep track anymore. Sighing, I fixed my hair up into a high ponytail and looked at myself in the mirror. For a second I saw a slightly younger me, smiling and waving back. It caused me to smile as well, memories of this place flooding back into me, both good and bad. Leaving the bathroom, I made sure to not make noise as I fished the pockets of my leather jacket and found the blue credit card.

The floorboards creaked slightly as I made my way down the stairs—or would have, if I hadn't remembered where they creaked and wound my way around them. I was mildly surprised that I still remembered small things like that but it left my mind just as quickly when I opened the front door and stepped out, feeling a cool breeze that made me momentarily shiver. I felt a momentary and small pain in my chest but it faded in mere seconds, leaving me to wonder what that feeling was. The walk to the nearest convenience store took about twenty minutes, in which I simply sang to myself and observed how much this place had changed since I'd last seen it. Some places were unrecognizable, while others brought a small smile to my face. Inhaling deeply, I smelled the dampness in the atmosphere with some humidity. It would be a partial lie if I said that I didn't miss being here.

My time in the convenience store was short, seeing as how I didn't like going to stores and such; I brought basic necessities, food, and some other things I thought looked cool (hey, Aizen was technically paying and I had no problem with taking advantage of that). My stomach growled when I saw food in particular. It was a side effect of waking up at unwanted times; I usually had a bigger appetite, I guess to compensate for whatever amount of sleep I could've obtained if someone or something hadn't woken me up before my time. I was the only one in the store at the moment, so it didn't take me long to purchase my items and leave. On my way back I took a small detour, walking through an area that was relatively remote, inhabited my nature and animals more than humans and buildings. I heard the birds' chirps more clearly now and reveled in the setting and atmosphere. Then I realized how much time I was taking to just go to the store, and the fact that I hadn't told Ulquiorra where I was going, and hurried back, almost dropping my bags at one point but managing to balance all five of them until I reached the front door and struggled to open it.

My feet quickly led me to the nearest table, hastily setting everything down and sighing in relief when the weight of my purchases didn't cut off my circulation. I rubbed the area where the bags' handles had been and eventually the pain went away, leaving me to wonder—

"Woman."

I turned around quickly but wasn't very surprised at his sudden appearance. "When did you wake up?"

He walked over to the bags and looked into them. "Where did you go?"

"A convenience store," was my simple answer as I walked up next to him and got a few things out of one of the bags; ingredients for a meal, a gallon of milk and a box of cereal in case he wasn't that hungry. "Do you feel like eating right now?" I asked and turned to face him. His face was close to mine but he wasn't looking my way as he searched through the bags. Funny, I didn't feel uncomfortable or embarrassed but actually felt calm around him like this.

"I do not need to eat," he stated.

"You should eat something anyways, your marioneta will probably need the energy," I answered and went over to the kitchen, testing the stove and seeing that it worked. I fished through the cabinets and found a pan, cutting board and took out the silverware I'd brought at the store, taking out a knife and cutting up a sausage and mixing an egg in a bowl, separating the yolk from the whites and sprinkling some salt into the bowl. I put butter on the pan before putting the whites in it, then used a wooden spoon to scramble them. I wasn't a superb cook, but I had learned a few things from my aunt. In the next moment I put the cut up sausage into the pan and mixed it with the egg. Minutes later, I'd made a meal for myself. When I took a fork and ate a bit, I hummed and shrugged, satisfied that it hadn't come out horrible. I continued to eat while standing, bringing back a memory from when I had gone to France and my aunt had let me spend the night at André's.

_ "I made cheesecake!" he burst into the room with two plates. As I stared hungrily at the huge slices of cheesecake on each plate, I could practically taste in my mouth._ It looks so fucking good_…He handed me one slice and sat down across from me on the floor, and watched me as I took the first bite._

_ This food was from heaven._

_ "Not quite, more like my kitchen," André remarked and it took me a while to realize I'd said that out loud, then blushed at bit at my lack of attention. "Dig in," he said before taking a bite of his own and shrugging._

_ "I can cook stuff too, but…," I murmured and shook my head. "It's nothing compared to this."_

_ "Really?" he asked with a grin. "Why don't you cook something for me?"_

_ "You'll look down on me," I sweat dropped and he laughed out loud._

_ "It's not gonna be as bad as you think."_

_ So, ten minutes later…_

_ "…This is really mediocre," he deadpanned while eating a piece of the slice of french toast I'd made. A few cross-popping veins appeared on my head and I remained silent._

Could've been worse, I guess…

I finished my plate and washed it, then put it on the rack to dry and sighed. Whether I openly admitted it or not, I sort of missed my life before all of this…

"Ah," I jolted a bit when I realized how much I'd spaced around and turned to see Ulquiorra coming down the stairs with the fliers.

About to throw them away.

Something about them made me stare at them, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it at the moment. I remembered looking at them yesterday before going to sleep but—

"Wait!" I called out and he immediately stopped walking and turned to face me.

"What is it?"

"This," I pulled out the flier and reread it, making sure it was the one I wanted. "Do you want to go?"

His green irises scanned the page in less than a few seconds and he shifted his gaze over to me. "A dance?"

"Yeah," I smiled a little. "Let me guess, you don't know how to dance?"

"That is not the pressing matter," he countered and I smirked. "Why would I go to an event such as this?"

"Just because," I answered and shrugged. My eyes glanced out the window and I saw that the sky had grown dark again. "And from the looks of it, you'll still be unable to open a garganta right now. It'll just be for a few hours, then we'll come back. I just want to show you the even-more-lively side of the world of the living."

He was silent, as was the entire house (not including the sound of water hitting the house as more rain rolled in).

"Or we could just go around the town, I don't know…"

"I will go," he replied and I was surprised for a fleeting moment before I smirked at him.

"I'm still wondering if you can dance, though."

"…"

Rolling my eyes, I got a bowl, went to the table and put cereal into the bowl before filling it with milk and getting a spoon. "Since you don't really want to eat, something small like this should satisfy you."

He walked up behind me and eyed the food, then sat down and lifted the spoon to his lips. He stayed like that for a while until his head turned to me.

"Do not watch me, woman."

"S-sorry," I sweat dropped and turned away, taking the fliers with me. I spent a few minutes thoroughly reading the other flyers but didn't see anything interesting and got a few things out of the bags, then went upstairs to set up those things in the bathroom. Toothbrushes, hair brushes, toothpaste and other necessities were lined in the cabinets and around the sink. While I was doing all this, I was panicking, mentally. Even though I wanted to go there was basically no time—the event was tonight at 8:00. That was a bit more than twelve hours away, and even though it sounded like plenty of time, it wasn't since it'd only been a few hours since I knew about this. What to wear (since it was a masquerade of sorts I guess it we were supposed to wear formal clothes? I was never really one for dances, but today I just felt like it…), how to get there, where to get our clothes, what we were going to do afterwards, the W's all swarmed in my head until I sighed and willed them out, almost all of them. _One step at a time_, I thought to myself. When I spared another glance at the seemingly useless flyers I facepalmed when I saw that they were actually my lifesavers in this moment. At the bottom of one flyer was a phone number for a tailor. Another flyer was a sample of a perfume (and apparently eyeshadow as well as other makeup; although I thought that only the perfume examples existed…) and another was patronizing new fashion stores. Looking at their addresses, they all seemed to be on the same street. In the middle of brushing my teeth, I did a fistpump and my spirits were at least a little uplifted. A memory from yesterday suddenly appeared in my mind. Ulquiorra…his lithe and fairly-muscular build as he took off his shirt…his lips—

I finished brushing my teeth quickly, flossed, rinsed my mouth and then washed my face with ice cold water. _Forget it, forget it, forget it_, I chanted in my head. _It never happened. Never. It never will. Just for—_

"Alexia."

I had the good luck of opening my eyes instantly and splashing water onto my face at the same time, making me wince and screw my eyes shut. "…Yeah?"

"Does one need to prepare for this event?"

"The masquerade?" I found it easier to talk to him when he wasn't staring at me, but rather my closed eyes and face covered by my hands as I finished washing up.

"If that is the term."

"I was going to do that right now," I said and dried my face with a towel before getting some lotion and putting it on my face. "Leave it to me, I know you and you probably don't know what to do right now. Just do the basic stuff, you know?" I nodded at the sink and he understood. Leaving the bathroom, I picked up my cellphone that so far only had texts from Szayel and dialed some of the numbers. In about half an hour I'd pretty much interviewed each store mentioned in the ads and had plenty of information. I made my first official call and encountered a woman's voice.

'John's Tailoring and Suits.'

"I'd like to rent a suit," I said.

'Men's suits only.'

"For my friend, sorry," I replied.

'Size?'

_Shit_.

I stopped myself from saying that out loud and cleared my throat, giving the woman on the other line a 'wait a minute'. A few hasty knocks on the door was all it took for Ulquiorra to open the door. He was apparently combing his hair which had gotten slightly disheveled when he'd slept. Averting my gaze from him, I came up behind him and turn the collar of the back of his shirt inside out and saw the size. Hopefully this would be a good fit (the shirt seemed to fit him just fine). Turning to the door I gave the size to the woman on the other line, not bothering to give Ulquiorra an explanation for my actions. After another few questions everything was set up. Except for one thing.

"By tomorrow?" I said in a panicked tone. "Can you have it ready sooner, please?"

'I'm afraid not.'

"Erm…," I fumbled for words. All of this would be for nothing if the suit wouldn't be ready until tomorrow morning, for obvious reasons.

'Would you like to cancel your order?'

"N-no!" I quickly answered, furrowing my eyebrows and sighing. "I'll pay you extra if you can have it in an hour or so."

'I'm afraid that—'

"One thousand euros," I said with finality. "I'll pay one thousand extra euros if you can get it done in an hour."

'…Your pickup time is 12:00.' With that I heard a click and the call ended. I looked at the phone screen, reading the time. _Nine thirty. Not bad…_

With a few more calls (and only a little more bargaining) I was able to get everything set up—for Ulquiorra. Getting a handbag from my closet, I stuffed my cell, iPod, and credit card in it and adjusted it over my torso from my right shoulder to the left side of my hip. On cue Ulquiorra came into the room just as I was about to go to him.

"Where are you going?"

"I need to tell you a few things so you can be prepared," I said and got a pen off of my desk, using a flyer that was one-sided to write down the information for him—a couple of addresses with labels written next to them in parenthesis so he could distinguish where to go for what. "All right."

His eyes glanced over at the list I'd made and I turned it towards him so he could scan my writing before I explained.

"You already know what a taxi is; call this number when you need to get somewhere. The tailor is going to have an outfit for you so all you need to tell them is your name and…," I went on and, even though I was aware of how tedious my instructions sounded, he listened to every word. My voice began to waver at the end and I willed it to stabilize before I continued. "One more thing."

He looked at me expectantly.

"We won't be leaving together," I said and fiddled with my hands. "I want you to go by yourself. I guess you can say it'll be a game. Try to figure out who I am."

Allowing himself to show some emotion, I saw the slight rise of his eyebrows. "Why?" I shrugged, although I knew the reason well—I didn't want to tell him. I didn't want to admit that doing this would allow me to act like the confident person I'd been like when I had first arrived at Hueco Mundo, daring to say everything that was on my mind. A fresh start, you could call it. Things were going to change in the span of a few hours, at least physically…

"And if you can guess…," I murmured, tilting my head at him, "You'll receive an award."

"What award?"

I had no idea what kind of reward he would actually want and not just receive, but smiled a little anyway and replied, "You'll find out if you win."

**[SIX]**

Alexia: Well you partially made it up with the length of this chapter, I guess…

Me: Partially ._.?

Ulquiorra: It is recommended that you begin to update sooner.

Me: Oh ^_^' yeah I'll try

Grimmjow: You _will_ -_-

Me: Don't pressure me

Unbr0ken: We can pressure you all we want :D No cheesecake for you!

Me: I will do unspeakable things to you in the upcoming rants if you pressure me •-•

Unbr0ken: …Like?

Alexia: One word (smirks)

Me: Grimmjow ^_^

Grimmjow: (Doesn't get it) What…?

Unbr0ken: Y-you don't have the guts…

Me: I have a keyboard and imagination :)

Ulquiorra: (Turns to Unbr0ken) Although it may not seem so, those two things are lethal weapons against you.

Unbr0ken: •-•

Alexia: Review guys :3 Well see you next time and we'll make sure to get Arekushia writing at a normal pace again -.-

Me: Oh and I'm taking suggestions for a summary to this story, I'm thinking of changing it again and since a summary can't give away the ending I thought it would be better for the readers to make one up…

Grimmjow: More like you're just lazy.

Me: ^_^' Not exactly. Partially…

Alexia: (Facepalm)

Song of the (Past two months?) Week: Can't Hold Us by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis


End file.
